DotHack:Reality
by TsukasaTheFominian
Summary: Alternate Universe where "The World" isn't a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for bet
1. Crime and Punishment

**Disclamer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes:** Ages- Tsukasa- 17

BT- late 30's

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me insentive to create new chapters and or stories.

**DotHack: Reality (part one)**

By: TsukasaTheFoaminian

Tsukasa walked down the road of Dun Loirage with the wind blowing through his hair. He knew he was supposed to go to class, but he didn't really care. He was already more powerful and more skilled then the others in his class combined. There wasn't anything that the instructor could teach Tsukasa that he didn't already know, or couldn't find out on his own. The only reason Tsukasa occasionally went to his classes was to just kill time and to keep up the act that he doesn't know as much as he does. The Administrators, the rulers of The World, don't like people having more power then they do. When ever they find someone with unusual skills or extraordinary power they always removed the child (or occasionally the adult that some how hid their ability).

Well he didn't have to think of that, he was almost at the Chaos Gate, and he should be focusing on where he was going to go today. _I could go another city,_ he thinks. _Mac Anu, the city of water, is always pleasant, but Carmina Gadelica is the city wrapped in eternal night, and very beautiful to look at with all the lights there. No, not another city right now. How 'bout warping to a dungeon. A fight for your life can really be a good pick-me-up._ As Tsukasa reaches the Gate, he's made his decision. No cities, no fields, just some quiet time in "his place." Yes, that's the right choice, he can also see if "she" has awakened. As Tsukasa summons his warping powers someone yells at him from the other side of the Chaos Gate area,

"Tsukasa! Where do you think you're going?! You know that your supposed to be in class right now!"

Tsukasa looks up and his heart sinks. It's his instructor, BT, she may be nice outside of class, but she is the hardest teacher in the world. It really interferes with Tsukasa's tendencies to just go and do what he wants to have a teacher who really cares about how you do in class, but expects you to show up and do the work that you need to do. She isn't lenient and she won't change due dates no matter what. Tsukasa faces BT as she walks up to him and stands before him.

"And where were you going to go just now Tsukasa?" BT asks angrily, while looking down at Tsukasa.

"Out," says Tsukasa in his usual short, vague style.

"Out to a field, or Out to another city?"

"You know that under age people can't warp to different cities by themselves," answers Tsukasa in a flat, uncaring tone.

"And I know you a lot better then some people do. I also know that a friend of mine saw a Wave Master who looked just like you over in Fort Ouf just yesterday," BT says with a smug look on her face.

Tsukasa is inwardly worried; he had skipped class to go to Fort Ouf. He had wanted to look at the only ancient fort left, and it had been cool to see it, especially since the city was built right on top of the wide walls of the fort. But he wasn't about to let BT see his worry, he had been a master of keeping a secret for a long time. "Then it must have been someone else," he said without showing any worry or concern.

"True, there are some look-a-likes," BT admits. "But not too many. And it doesn't matter where you were yesterday, or where you were going today. You still skipped class and were going to skip class today. I know your old instructor didn't care where you were as long as you turned in your assignments and passed the skills exams, but I'm different. **I** expect you to be in class everyday and paying attention, and not to do so will mean punishment." BT drags Tsukasa from the Chaos Gate and herds him toward the school area.

The school was one of the biggest areas in Dun Loirage, complete with a large building for study, and a huge area for training. Since there are 6 different types of classes a person can turn out to be, there has to be a lot of room for everyone. When a child turns 8, he or she is given a series of tests to see what class is best suited for, and what a person is best suited for usually counted on what skills he or she could learn. The skills and abilities that a Blade Master could learn are extremely different from those of a Heavy Axeman or Twin Blade. The Blade Masters use a one-handed sword that has semi hi attack power. Heavy Axemen use an ax, usually a 2-handed ax, which is powerful but is slow moving. Heavy Blades use 2-handed swords that are very powerful. Long Arms use 2-handed spears and are usually quick and powerful, but not much on the defense. Twin Blades use 2 shorter swords or blades mounted to the wrist, and have grate agility and speed. The Wave Masters usually only use magic. They carry only a staff, so their physical power and defense are really low, but they are adept at healing and using their magic.

Since they are so different, there's a lot of room for physical and mental training. But there are still some mixed classes where the different groups get together, like history. Tsukasa was one of the "lucky" ones who have their skill teacher also be their history teacher. The old instructor, Thunderclap, was a Long Arm who didn't care how Tsukasa learned, just as long as he turned in assignments and proved that he could use his skills. Two days ago, Thunderclap had gotten really sick and had to quit teaching, so BT was put in as the new instructor. Tsukasa thought since they were friends outside of school, he could still act as usual, but it now seemed that he could not, and he should have known. BT always took her job seriously, and never let anything come between her and doing her job right. They went past the courtyards and went into the building, into the history room. There BT shoved Tsukasa into his seat and began her lectures. A few people laughed when Tsukasa was dragged in, but Tsukasa was just bored with the idea of sitting and listening of 2 hours in this one class. BT had started off where Thunderclap had left off, at the end of the Age of Spirits and the beginning of The World.

Tsukasa knew all this, how some unknown force, simply called the Abominable Wave, had descended on the world of humans and sprites. It slowly consumed everything and nearly destroyed everyone, until the forces of Helba, Queen on Dark and Aperion, King of Light joined forces to save what was left of the human race, since the sprites had all been killed. The only sprites left were 2 half sprites who had gone with a human to find the Twilight Dragon. They never returned, and it wasn't needed, since the power of the combined forces of Helba and Aperion had fought back and defeated the Accursed Wave with the help of the great Wave Master, Herald. After the battle, Helba and Aperion had been too weak to go on living so they died. Herald then used his power to recreate the world into The World. Herald died soon after the reforming of The World, so not much is known about his past. The remaining people of the city Mac Anu had too weak of power to do much than just live, so they had created the Administration to oversee everything and to keep everything in check. Over time, people grew stronger and started journeying outside the city, and eventually founded the other five cities.

Tsukasa already knew all of this, so he didn't know why he needed to listen to the lecture, especially when he had already turned in a three page report about this topic to prove it. He found out at the end of class.

"All right class," BT announces. "Your first assignment is a three page essay on the war, and the aftermath of the war, courtesy of someone who gave me the idea."

Half the class glares at Tsukasa because they know it was him who turned in an unneeded three-page essay yesterday.

"Except," she announces "for you Tsukasa. You will have to turn in a six page essay for skipping class yesterday and trying to skip class today."

"SIX! BUT THAT'S NOT FAIR!" Tsukasa shout as he jump out of his seat.

"Fine, if you don't think six is enough, then perhaps eight will do," she says uncaringly.

"EIGHT?!"

"Ten then, would you like to go higher?"

Tsukasa sit down and holds his tongue, since not even he wants to go over ten pages. A couple of kids laugh at him, but BT hits them with a five-page assignment for laughing at a classmate. BT sets the due date in three days, then releases the class. Tsukasa only sits in his chair and think numbly, _Ten pages, how can she do this to me. Now I won't even have time to see the sleeping girl today._

--------------(TBC)-----------------


	2. Traped in the Field

**Disclamer: : **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters. I'm trying to get the rights, but things haven't been looking too good lately.

**Notes: **Ages- Tsukasa, Mimiru- Around 16 or 17

BT, Sanjuro- Late 30's

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me insentive to create new chapters and or stories.

**Dothack:Reality** (part 2)

By: TsukasaTheFoaminian

_Man, poor Tsukasa, _Mimiru thought as she went to her skills class with the other Heavy Blades. _Getting a ten-page essay, just for not showing up to class._ Mimiru had been trying to become friends with Tsukasa for a while now. At first it was just a dare that someone had given her, but now she really wanted to be friends with Tsukasa. She'd been trying to get Tsukasa to talk with her more by being friendly and trying to be there for him when needed, but Tsukasa never really need help from anyone. Then there's the fact that Tsukasa always had that way of just warping away and not being seen anywhere for the whole day. _I wonder where he goes?_

All the while, Mimiru's skills instructor, Sanjuro, had been reviewing the sword technique they had been going over for the past three days and had called Mimiru and another girl, BlackRose, to demonstrate. The problem is that Mimiru's attention was some where else and Mimiru was an expert at looking like she was paying attention when she really wasn't. Just a simple nod or shake of the head usually, but she had a tendance to start doing the things she had been told to do. While Mimiru was thinking about Tsukasa, she somehow walked out into the demo area, and had assumed her fighting stance. She was only pulled out of her thoughts when she heard BlackRose rush toward her and yell, and even then all she could do was raise a weak defense and get knocked on her ass.

"Mimiru," Sanjuro asked glaring down at her. "What are you doing sitting on the ground?"

"Getting beaten by BlackRose with the new technique?" Mimiru asks innocently and jokingly.

Some of the kids laugh, but Sanjuro only glares at her and states, "The beginnings of that technique are easy to dodge. Mimiru, you can't have your mind wandering in any blade class unless you want to end up without an arm, a leg, or just plain dead."

He gave this speech twice a week, so the students knew it by heart already, and Mimiru was ashamed of herself because she knew it was true. They had stopped using fake weapons a year ago, and the real ones were deadly. After about five minutes of lecturing, Sanjuro sets Mimiru against BlackRose again and this time Mimiru matches her opponent move for move. The technique they had been learning had meant to be a domination technique for the person who uses it, forcing the opponent to block and guard too much and caused them to quickly exhaust. But Mimiru was something of a genies when it comes to swordplay, and had long since seen a place in the exercise where the person on defense could turn to the offense. She amazed everyone when she became the one in control and BlackRose was on the defense. She got some complements from some of the students, and was even allowed to leave class early by Sanjuro for the great display. Mimiru decided to use the time to wait for Tsukasa to get out of his class and see if he wanted to do anything with her.

Tsukasa wasn't happy with how the day was going, first a ten-page essay, then a waste of time learning skills he already knew, and now he could see that girl Mimiru waiting for him. He didn't know why she was so determined to be his friend, and he continually told himself that he didn't care, but in deep down he really did care. Nobody had really cared about him since his parents had died and he had been forced to live in an orphanage. The lady who ran the orphanage didn't care about any of the kids, and couldn't care less if they were all killed by monsters. Tsukasa never had good people skills, so even before the accident he didn't have many friends. Then after the accident he pulled back even farther and refused contact with anyone. Then there were his teachers who never cared at all about him either. The truth was, he was half-happy about the assignment because it would be a challenge for his mind, which he rarely got, and loved all the times he talked to Mimiru. But he wasn't about to admit that to anyone, not even himself.

Tsukasa decided to see what Mimiru wanted, so he walked up to her and asked, "What do you want?" in a flat, bored tone.

Mimiru decides this is the perfect time to ask Tsukasa, so she just dives in, "I wanted to see if you wanted to go to a dungeon with me."

"A dungeon? When I just got a 10-page essay to write? Are you trying to make me fail?" Tsukasa asks coldly.

"No," say Mimiru. "I just know that you are a lot smarter then anyone thinks. I see you warping out of the city all the time, but you don't have writing materials anything with you. Then I don't see you all day, and the next day for class you turn in a three-page paper about a subject given to us just the other day. If you can write a three- page paper in less then one-day, then you can probably add another seven pages to a three-page essay in three days."

Tsukasa was amazed that anyone had noticed how quickly he writes, and he hadn't even thought about just adding more to the paper he had already written.

"OK," he says defeated "I'll go, where are we headed?"

"To Forgotten-Dog Dancing-Mirror World," Mimiru says, surprised that Tsukasa had decided to come. "There's supposed to be a really rare item at the Got Statue there."

"All right," say Tsukasa. "Let's just get this over with." He would rather see the sleeping girl again, but a dungeon adventure was something he thought of doing. The problem was since he was going with someone else, he wouldn't be able to use his Summoning abilities, and he got such a bigger thrill from summoning the Guardian, or from Dragon Summoning, then just normal magic and normal Summoning. But he didn't mind, it might still be fun.

They got to the Chaos Gate shortly and warped out together. The area turned out to be a normal grassy area with a few old ruins in it. But this area was filled with a ton of magic portals, all which contained monsters in them. _There's something I can put in my report, _thought Tsukasa, _how when Herald recreated The World, he filled it full of monsters that for some reason would revive themselves after they died, and all of them were loose. And how Wave Masters eventually learned that they could trap those monsters in Magic Portals._ The problem was that the portals were unstable and anyone who got close to them released the monsters inside. The only thing that didn't set off portals were the Grunties that people had domesticated. _I can also talk about how Wave Masters of high level can create warp points, as long as they are near a dungeon. I guess this wasn't that bad of an idea after all._

"So Tsukasa, you ready to take on some monsters?" Mimiru asked in a fiery tone and a determined look in her eyes.

"Sure, do you want me to just heal, or do you want me to attack as well?"

"Just do what ever you want," Mimiru said. "Its not like I'm the leader here. I can heal myself if needed, and it might be fun to see how powerful your magic is."

This surprised Tsukasa a lot. Most parties that were formed had a designated leader and they made all the decisions. Mimiru stepped up to the Portal and there was a big flash of light. After the light fades, there is a small witch standing in the center of the area. The Mimiru rushed up to attack, but the witch raised her wand and hit her with a Magic Blast so powerful that Mimic is thrown back 6 feet. Tsukasa laughs at Mimiru's misfortune and kills off the witch with a powerful thunderbolt. Tsukasa walks over to Mimiru, but when he speaks to her, she doesn't wake up. He then tries to shake her awake, but when he touches her, he feels something wet. When he pulls his hand back, it is covered with Mimiru's blood. Terrified, Tsukasa quickly heals her and tries to get her to wake up. She eventually wakes up, but she is in a daze and a little confused. She eventually pulls herself together and says, "I don't get it. The guy who told me about this field said it was low leveled and would be a synch to beat."

"Well it isn't," Tsukasa says coldly, but still very worried. "We'd better go back and get you a better healer."

"Right," says a still slightly wounded Mimiru.

They both try to Warp out, but for some reason they can't. They are both very worried and thoroughly bewildered.

"What is going on here?" Mimiru asks aloud to herself.

-------------------(TBC)---------------------

**A/N**: I'm evil for leaving it here, I know


	3. Got Quest

**Disclamer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters. Pity me because I really do love the show.

**Notes: **Ages- Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, BlackRose- around 16 or 17.

Sora- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro- Late 30's

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me insentive to create new chapters and or stories.

**DotHack:Reality Part 3**

**By: **TsukasaTheFominian

'This is really weird, I've always been able to warp anywhere I wanted too,' thought Tsukasa. 'Why can't I warp now?'

Tsukasa was really worried, since there had to be some great power behind this, since he was not able to warp away, and he had never encountered such a power.

"Hey," says Mimiru. "Do you think that someone could have set up a Barrier? I've herd of the Crimson Knights doing stuff like that when they are trying to catch someone."

A cloaked man steps from behind a boulder and says in an excited voice, "That's what happened."

Tsukasa raises his wand in defense while Mimiru brings up her sword and says "Th...that's the guy who told me about this field!"

"Who are you?" Tsukasa asks angrily.

The man then rips off his cloak to reveal a young, green-haired Twin Blade. "You can call me Sora," says the man.

"Sora! The legendary thief?!" Tsukasa is really surprised and very afraid. Sora was said to be a powerful Twin Blade who nobody could match in speed and skill. He was invited to join the Knights, and he accepted the offer, but during the inauguration he betrayed the knights and stole Lady Suberu's jeweled necklace. He escaped the Knight's wrath and disappeared into some field, where he just attacks parties and steals any rare item that they have. "What do you want from us? We don't have any rare items that you can steal."

"No, not right now, but you will." Sora says in a menacing voice.

"What do you mean?" Demands Mimiru with an angry fire in her eyes. "Why did you tell me about this place, and then set up a Barrier to trap us in a high leveled field?"

"Because I want to see how strong you are and I didn't want to go through that dungeon all by my self." Sora says like a little child.

"So you wanted to make a party then?" Asks Tsukasa.

"No, I want you to go in there and get the Got Statue item for me."

"WHAT!" says an enraged Mimiru. "If you can't get through that dungeon, what makes you think we can without some help?"

"Oh I can," Sora says. "I just don't want to go though all that trouble. You can either get me the item, or be stuck hear in a field full of powerful monsters without any help from anyone. Oh, and don't think you can just go to another dungeon, there isn't another one for miles and miles. And the power I used on you negates your warping ability, so it won't work anyways. And all the portals around here have just as powerful monsters as the Witch you just faced. Well I'll see you when you get the item." Sora then jumps up to the top of a boulder and disappears.

"Well, I guess we don't have that much a choice, do we?" Mimiru asks in a defeated kind of way.

"I guess not." Tsukasa isn't really happy about this. Their lives are in danger, but he can't use his special powers to help, since he doesn't want anyone to know. "We'd better save as much power for the dungeon as we can." Tsukasa pulls out a flute and plays it. There is a bright flash near by and suddenly a Grunty is standing near them.

"I didn't know you had a Grunty Flute. That'll make this a lot easier." Mimiru looks down for a sec and says, "Hey, what's this?" There is a small piece of paper on the ground. Mimiru picks it up and reads what it says, she then looks disgusted and throws the paper on the ground. "It's that freaks Member's Address."

For some reason, people can send short, telepathic messages to others if they know a special code that the person uses. That is what a Member's Address is, the code that enables the messaging ability. Tsukasa bends down to pick up the paper and pockets it. "He probably wants us to message him when we find get the item. I'll keep it if you don't want it."

"Lets just get this over with." They both get on the Grunty and head toward the dungeon. One special ability of Grunties is that they don't activate Magic Portals. That made it a quick and easy trip to the dungeon for Tsukasa and Mimiru, but once they got there they had to leave the Grunty behind. After they got into the dungeon, Mimiru used a Fairy's Orb to reveal everything in the dungeon. They chose a root through the dungeon that has the least amount of monsters in it, and take off as fast as they can to get the dungeon adventure over with. They did OK the first and second levels of the dungeon, Tsukasa was able to hit the monsters with his magic enough to defeat the monsters, but after that things got tricky.

They found that the only way to get to the Got Statue was to go through 6 monster battles, and during the first battle they found that the monsters on this level had Magic Immunity. Mimiru was able to beat the first monster with a few special abilities, but afterwards she was exhausted.

"I don't think I'll be able to do something like that again." Mimiru says breathlessly.

"Well, we have to keep moving," reasons Tsukasa. "Or else well be trapped here forever, and not even I want that." Tsukasa quickly heals Mimiru and drags her off to the next room. Mimiru follows quickly because she knows its true and doesn't want to be trapped either. After they enter, they find the portal is far enough away to not activate it right away. So they sit down to rest for a bit.

"I'm really sorry for dragging you into this Tsukasa." Mimiru says with tears start to well up in her eyes. "I didn't want you to get hurt or anything, I just wanted to spend some time with you. I never thought that this place could be such a death trap for anyone who entered." After that, Mimiru bursts into tears and hugs her legs into her.

Tsukasa is really afraid, part for himself and part for Mimiru. He knows that Mimiru wouldn't want to hurt him, and he is really afraid for Mimiru as well. "It'll be OK Mimiru, I won't be hurt so easily and I'll really help you to beat the next monster."

"I think I'm ready to beat the next one Tsukasa, lets go." Mimiru then steps up to the gate and a huge stone-like monster appears. It Tsukasa tries to use a magic attack on it, but this one has Magic Immunity as well. Mimiru then charges at the monster, while Tsukasa casts different spells on Mimiru to increase her strength, defense, and speed. Mimiru tries to attack the monster, but it has a really high defense and is super fast despite its appearance. It knocks Mimiru on the ground with one hit and Mimiru can't move. Tsukasa runs over to heal Mimiru, but before he can, the monster is there trying to attack him. Tsukasa then puts up a barrier around him and Mimiru, but the monster continually pounds on the barrier.

'I think I'm going to have to summon it' Tsukasa thinks. He is about to summon his Guardian, when he hears someone yell at the monster and two people jump out to attack the monster. One is a Twin Blade wearing red, and the other is a Heavy Blade that dressed like Mimiru, but has pink hair. While they are keeping the monster busy, Tsukasa heals Mimiru and wakes her.

"What's going on here?" Mimiru asks. She then looks over at the fighting and sees who it is. "BlackRose? What are you doing here?"

"I herd you talking to that clocked man, and thought it would be fun to come here to have some fun, but I didn't know this was high level area. When we found out, we went back to town, but when we heard that you went here but didn't come back, we got worried and came back for you."

"Can we talk later?" Says the Twin Blade. "We've still got a monster to beat"

"Right Kite," BlackRose says as she joins him in an attacking stance.

"I'll join in too." Mimiru states as she walks up next to them.

"You guys focus on the attack." Tsukasa says. "I'll distract it."

Mimiru, BlackRose, and Kite all rush up to attack while Tsukasa throughs a magic attack at the monster. It doesn't do any damage, but it does blind the monster, and distract it for the three rushing for the attack. With the monster distracted and two more people attacking, they are able to beat the monster easily.

After the monster is defeated, Kite and BlackRose asks Tsukasa and Mimiru why they are in the dungeon. Knowing that they wouldn't be able to explain themselves with a lie, Mimiru and Tsukasa both agree to tell them what had happened. After they are told Kite and BlackRose both are stunned.

"Wow, I didn't know Sora had that type of ability," says amazed Kite. "Well, we could go back to town and get some help for you."

Tsukasa shakes his head and simply says, "Sora would know and would probably come after us after you left. He probably knows that you two are here in this dungeon and might even know that you're helping us. I think the best thing to do is to just do what he says and not to argue." The three others look at him like he's insane, so Tsukasa quickly says, "Now that we have a party of four, it'll be easy to get to the Got Statue, and we probably couldn't beat Sora anyways." Tsukasa was sure that his Guardian would be able to beat Sora, but he didn't want the others to know about it.

"I think your right Tsukasa," BlackRose says. "We can't beat him, and we won't be able to stop him if he attacks us. Lets just get the treasure and get out of here."

"Fine with me," Mimiru says unenthusiastically.

"OK," Kite says defeated. "Lets just get this over with."

The four of them enter the next room after deciding to use the same technique to defeat the rest of the monsters. All the monsters afterwords fall with ease and they quickly reach the Got Statue. When they get to the statue, Kite, Mimiru, and BlackRose all look toward Tsukasa and wait for him to open the chest. Tsukasa just looks back and simply says to Kite and BlackRose, "Well, what are you waiting for?"

"Hu?" Both BlackRose and Kite say together.

"Mimiru and I would have been dead if you two hadn't shown up. You deserve to open the chest."

BlackRose is the first to recover and says, "It doesn't matter who opens the chest. We're giving what ever's in there to Sora anyways. You open it Tsukasa."

"One of you should do it. You can brag about how you got the treasure from a high-leveled dungeon, and it was so rare, Sora just had to steal it."

Mimiru starts to get a little impatient and says, "Would one of you just open the stupid chest. I'm getting tired of waiting."

"OK OK. I'll open it and get the item." Kites says in an unamused tone of voice and walks up to the treasure chest. Kite slightly opens the chest and the chest bursts open in a flash of light. Mimiru and BlackRose both look away from the light and close their eyes, but both Kite and Tsukasa are able to see a strange book in the center of the blinding light. The light then gets even brighter and then suddenly winks out. When the party looks back too the chest, they find that the book has disappeared and is no where to be found. Tsukasa and Kite both tell the others about the book and they all search the small room, but there is nothing in the entire room.

"Oh no," says a Mimiru who has started to shake with fear with the loss of the treasure. "What will Sora do when he finds out that the book is gone?"

"I don't want to think about it," replies a terrified Kite.

--------------------(TBC)------------------

**A/N**: The next updates wont be so quick since the first three stories were premade by me a few months ago. Reply if you want me to keep making more. I must also say that I am just winging this fic and have no definite end in mind. Please don't be angry and I'll try to make information follow through, but I may make mistakes and the final ending may not be that good. Please bear with me. I do promise to truly end this story, it just may not be that good.


	4. Fight Fight Fight

**Disclamer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**_Me: _**(starts to cry) Why must I be deprived of the .hack oh lord and master, Why? (squirrel pops up over his shoulder)

**_Foamy: _**because you're stupid.

**_Me: _**I'm out your cult now squirrel. (see A/N for explanation)

**Notes: **Ages- Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, BlackRose- around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba- Late 30's

Hotaru- around 7 or 8

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me insentive to create new chapters and or stories.

**DotHack: Reality ch. 4**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

Tsukasa, Kite, BlackRose and Mimiru all walk back through the dungeon not liking what awaits them at the end. The treasure that Sora had ordered them to get was lost, and Tsukasa and Mimiru didn't have the ability to warp back to town. The four of them all walk in deafening silence, each trying to find a way out to beat Sora, but each knowing that they don't stand a chance. The only plan that could work would be for Tsukasa to summon his Guardian, but he didn't want anyone to know about that unless necessary, so he doesn't even talk about that as an option for defeating one of the most powerful people in "The World."

They all finally reach the dungeon exit, but each one does not move one step forward, each too afraid of what will happen to the non-warping party members. After about three minutes of silence, Mimiru is finally able to choke out,

"W... well, we'd better just go and face what's coming to us."

She takes one step forward and everyone else follows slowly. The only plan that Tsukasa can come up with is just to talk to Sora and try to reason with him, but he seriously doubts that Sora would ever listen to a bunch of teens that lost his precious book.

As they all get outside, nobody appears and everything is silent. Tsukasa and Kite both scan the grassy field and look at the ruins, but there is nothing to be seen.

BlackRose is the first one to speak, "Did Sora just go away?"

"Not quite," Sora jumps from the dungeon entrance and lands in front of them. "So kiddies, were is my new treasure?"

Everyone simply stands rooted to the ground staring at anything but the threatening Twin Blade. Sora quickly gets impatient and asks again more forcefully, "Where Is It?!"

Tsukasa is the first one to get his voice back and tells the green haired Twin Blade the point blank truth. "It disappeared when we opened the chest, we have no clue what happened to it."

Sora stairs at the party for a minute and begins to laugh uncontrollably. The others stare at him as if he had gone mad while Sora regained his composure and was finally able to say, "That was a good joke, trying to trick me into believing you didn't get the item just so I'll let you go and let you take the item for yourself, right?" Sora finds everyone looking away from him unable to answer his question and quickly realizes that they were telling the truth.

"You mean to tell me that you LOST _MY_ Got Statue Item?!"

"We didn't mean to lose it," Kite squeaks out. "It just disappeared in a flash of light and..."

Sora interrupts Kite with murder in his eyes, "HOW COULD YOU LOSE IT!!"

Everyone gets into a fighting stance seeing the look in Sora's eyes and becoming very afraid of it. Sora brings out his blades and charges while shouting "YOU IDIOTS." Tsukasa casts a speed spell on Kite, since he has the best chance of standing up against Sora because they are both Twin Blades. The two Twin Blades battle clash and Kite is able to withstand the first few blows, but he is quickly over powered by the older man's strength, speed, ability, and experience.

Kite is easily thrown to the ground and Sora moves in for a kill, but becomes distracted by the Heavy Blades as they rush to intercept him. Sora's speed and agility allows him to easily doge the attacks and let him strike at the two girls while they struggle to guard themselves. Mimiru and Black Rose both fall after blocking Sora's attack, but are easy prey to the green haired menace.

While this is going on, Tsukasa is frantically sending messages to every adult he could think of as well as trying to figure out how to defend against Sora. After seeing his party members fall he rushes over to them and immediately puts up a barrier to try and defends his companions. This works for a short while, but not for long since Tsukasa is already weary from the fruitless dungeon adventure. It doesn't take the thief too long to break through Tsukasa's shield, especially with a few high powered attacks, and the party is at his mercy. Sora seizes Tsukasa by the shirt and asks one again, "Where is my treasure?"

Tsukasa simply stairs into Sora's eyes, hating him for bringing the "unbeatable" Wave Master to his knees and ready to take his life. Like every thing else in his life, Tsukasa tells himself that he doesn't care about anything, including his own life. Arguing to himself that nothing good had ever happened in his life and nothing ever would be good. A crappy orphanage for a home, memories of his father that made his current life almost seem like paradise, powers that he would be kill for if the rulers of the world ever found out about, nothing every seemed to go his way.

"I have no clue where your treasure went, so just kill me and get it over with" he states in a lost and hopeless voice. Death seemed almost inviting compared to the life he currently lives. Almost. Some basic instinct within him still wanted to live, and that was enough incentive for the Guardian to appear.

Tears start to for in Mimiru's eyes when she hears Tsukasa ask for death, and shouts out as Sora moves in for the kill. She, along with everyone else in the field, are mystified when Sora is thrown back from Tsukasa and a huge, slimy, barbell like monster appears between them. Mimiru quickly gets up and runs to Tsukasa to see if he is ok, and is pleased to discover that there isn't as much as a cut on him.

"Does anyone know what that thing is? Black Rose asks. "I've never heard of a monster like this before in my life."

Tsukasa replies, "It's my Guardian..."

Everyone looks at him and tries to ask Tsukasa what he knows, but are interrupted when Sora charges for another attack. Sora was used to being the strongest in the land, and was only rivaled by Crim the Red Lightning, so he had no doubt he could defeat this new monster. To his dismay, he learned that such a task was not easy to accomplish. The monster was made of slime, and his attacks went right through the monster's body while it regenerated itself. The monster also was immune to any elemental abilities as well as power downs.

All but one of the onlookers were amazed by the fact that Sora was having a difficult time standing up to the strange beast. While Sora fought, Mimiru couldn't help but remember how the monster had come only when Tsukasa was in danger, and how the Wave Master had call it, "_His_ Guardian." Mimiru easily put two and two together and was suddenly became extremely piss off at her friend.

"You could have summoned that thing at any time and yet we had to face that entire dungeon by ourselves?!!! Where you waiting for us to all die before you decided to play that handy little trump card or yours?!!!"

Tsukasa knew he had to explain himself and that he'd better do it quick before everyone surrounding him got angry enough to kill him. "I was hoping to keep it a secret so the Admins. would never find out and have grounds to get rid of me. I was going to summon it on the last level of the dungeon when it was just the two of us, but then Kite and Black Rose arrived and we didn't need the trump any more."

Black Rose was about to give him a piece of her mind when they heard the sounds of someone rushing toward them and found Sora charging them. He had finally gotten away from the Guardian long enough to make an advance on Tsukasa. Killing the summoner was just as good as killing the monster itself, so that was his best bet for getting out of the battle alive. He was about to take out Tsukasa when he learned that in addition to being invincible, the Guardian could also teleport to anywhere it wanted. It appeared in front of him sent out a tentacle strike to kill the threat to it's master, when it suddenly stopped for no reason, and mysteriously disappeared.

Everyone in the field stared at the empty space where the Guardian once was and the teens realized that there was now nothing between them and the thief. They stair at Sora while he still stares at nothing with a look on his face as if he is the one who is in trouble, fear dominating his eyes. He only says one word while he is detached, "Helba..."

Immediately after saying that one word a dozen swordsmen warp in at once, all wearing red, all armored, all wearing identical skull helmets, all with swords, and all ready to attack. Only two of the twelve were different, one wearing a horned helmet, and one wearing red pants, a red vest over chain mail and carried a spear instead of a sword. The horned leader steps forward and announces to all in the area, "I Silver Knight of the Crimson Knights, here by place the outlaw know as Sora, under arrest."

Tsukasa was slightly worried about the fact that the Knights were here, not because they had protection from Sora, but because if they had arrived just a minute earlier they would have seen the Guardian and would have been able to trace it's connection back to him. Then he would have been found out and he would have been in the same situation as Sora. 'It was a good thing that the Guardian had left when it did... but the Guardian has never left by itself in the past, I wonder why it happened now.' Tsukasa then remembered what Sora had last said, "Helba" sounded like a name. 'Maybe it wasn't luck that it left at all...'

While Tsukasa thought, the others cheered as the Knights fought against Sora. The second leader of the Knights, Crim, had stayed to watch over them as the his companions tried to deal with Sora. The Knights were having a difficult time detaining the criminal since he was so quick and powerful. Normally, Sora could easily have taken out these Knights without breaking a sweat, but his bout with the Guardian had taken a lot out of him and he knew when to cut his loses. He dodged a few more attacks from his opponents and jumped onto a large boulder and pulled out a special Spite Ocarina, one pained red instead of the normal white. He then gave Crim a small smirk before warping out of the barrier that the Knights had set up around the field.

Everyone stared at the spot where Sora had stood, only two were not surprised by the fact that Sora had gotten away; Crim, who knew Sora could escape from a sealed field, and Tsukasa who had toyed with modifying Sprite Ocarinas and had discovered that they could be advanced in such a way, and all his Super Ocarinas had turned a red color as well.

While Silver Knight started barking orders to look in the surrounding area for the bandit, Crim looked after the children. "Are any of you seriously hurt?"

Kite was the first one to give him an answer, "Mimiru is the one who needs a healer right away, the rest of us only have some bumps and scrapes."

"That's good, I'll take you back to town, see about a healer, and then you'll have to answer a few questions.

(Elsewhere)

Sora walked down the streets of a very run down neighborhood, a place where there were no trees, the ground was red, and everything seemed broken or fragmented. Many of the buildings were made up of what seemed to be pieces of other buildings or even items. Children played in the streets while parents and adults watched them or went about their daily chores to keep the paradise alive and thriving. Many on the outside would wonder why someone would call a ghetto like town a paradise, but Net Slum was the only safe haven for those with un-natural abilities, un-natural powers, or were mutants. Everyone was accepted there as long as they were open minded and willing to work for a living. Sora quickly proceeded to the largest house in Net Slum, and entered and was immediately tackled by a small girl carrying a baby Grunty. "I'm so glad that your back Papa!"

Sora only smiled gently and hugs the girl back, "I'm happy to see you too Hotaru, is your mentor in?"

Another voice answers his question, "She is upstairs waiting for you. I can't believe you failed at just retreating a simple item from a Got Statue."

"I don't need you telling me what I didn't do Ouka" Sora growls back at the werewolf.

Sora sets Hotaru down and sends her off to play while he goes up to face Helba, the  
Queen of the Dark. He finds her sitting in the middle of a room with her eyes closed. "I'm truly sorry that I have failed you my Queen, I was not able to retrieve the item from those children. I promise you I will get it back."

"If you had gone in to get the item yourself, this would not have happened. Do not trouble yourself over this, you can not regain the item now."

"What!?"

Helba only looks at the lazy thief with a small amount of amusement before continuing. "I was monitoring you during everything that happened. Kite is now in possession of the item, but he doesn't even realize this yet. It is now bonded to him and will not leave him. One good thing that came out of this is that we found another powerful Wave Master who may be willing to join us one day. We will most likely need both Kite and Tsukasa to face the danger that is approaching 'The World.'"

-----------------(TBC)--------------------

**A/N**: First off, the whole squirrel thing is from my favorite online cartoon at It is about a small talking squirrel with a bad temper and a foul mouth. He is the self proclamed Lord and Master of his cult and loved by many. Watch if you want. (A Fominian is one who is a minion of Foamy... hits himself several times I cant believe I even misspelled my own Pen Name!! crys I SUCK AT WRITING!I really did just realize I misspelled my own pen name by writing "minian")

Second, No Hotaru is not really Sora's daughter. She was adopted by Sora. I plan on explaining all the adoption stuff in one or two chapters, so just wait until then. I actually didn't plan on adding any .hackLegend characters (i dont like that one as much as i do .hacksign) but I think Ouka is kool and Hotaru is cute.

Special thanks to the-dragon-of-darkness-17 for constant reviews and suggestions. (hugs the-dragon-of-darkness-17) THANK YOU!!


	5. Simple Angel

**Disclamer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes: **Ages- Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, BlackRose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru - around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba- Late 30's

Hotaru- around 7 or 8

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me insentive to create new chapters and or stories.

**DotHack: Reality ch. 5**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

Tsukasa sat in a waiting room at the Silver Knight head quarters, waiting for his impending death. Though everyone had been saved from Sora's attack, the others had seen his Guardian and knew that he was the one who summoned it. He knew that one of them would be a good little citizen and turn him in for having illegal powers, and that would be the end of his life. Nobody really knew why it was so wrong to have power's that were too strong, it was never explained , it was just assumed that the Administrators didn't want anyone to have more then they did, but that never sat well with Tsukasa. They could easily just as easily try to make the person one of the leaders, but they never did, even with the youngest child. It was very strange and completely unfair.

The door to the his room opened and Tsukasa knew that his time had come. The only bright side to his death was that he had spent a little time in one of the most amazing rooms that he had ever seen. Through out the entire complex, there were walls painted red and no chips or fading could be seen anywhere. The pillars in the hall ways were perfect and had beautiful golden designs of monsters, warriors and dragons on them. Tsukasa's own room had an extremely comfortable couch in with amazing wood work and incredibly soft feather pillows. It also had tables with priceless vases which had flowers in them, making the entire room smell incredibly nice.

The one at the door turned out to be a servant girl who worked at the HQ, named Mistral. She had been the only person Tsukasa had seen since they had been taken to Mac Anu for questioning. He hadn't even had a little bit of time to talk to others privately to see if they were going to keep quiet about his powers. Mistral was really very talkative and didn't mind that she was having a one sided conversation since Tsukasa never was voluntarily part of a conversation. She told him about her life working with the knights and her twin sister named Mireille who had a love of anything rare and was an amazing treasure hunter at the age of 17. Both were Wave Masters and both even had the same type of magic staff. Now Mistral told him to just follow him so he could have his meeting with Lady Subaru, Leader of the Knights.

Many said Subaru was too young to be in politics, only being about the same age as Mistral, but she had proven time and again that she had wisdom and responsibility far beyond her years. Some even said that the Administrators could even take a leaf out of her book. Tsukasa finally entered Subaru's room and was shocked by what he saw inside, the room was void of all the beauty that was in every other room he had seen. The walls were still painted red, but there was no decorative designs anywhere, no silk furniture, no priceless vases, no intricate wood work. Everything was plain and there was still not much even at that. There was only one table with a glass vase with was filled with flowers, a bed, a couch, a few chairs, a chest, a cabinet, and a bookshelf which was filled top to bottom with books.

Mistral had quickly left after saying hello to Subaru and introducing Tsukasa and the two of them were left alone. Subaru noticed Tsukasa observing her quarters and was quick to answer the questions that he didn't ask.

"I don't feel comfortable living with such fine things as are in the rest of the grounds. I grew up in a simple way and have never really grown accustomed to living with great luxuries. I try not to treasure material objects and to make myself rich, others need that comfort more then I. The one thing I really do treasure in this room are my books."

Tsukasa had met people who talked like Subaru, who preached about how they were so humble. Tsukasa had know for a fact that those people only said those things to make others worship them, but for some reason he didn't believe that Subaru was like that. He felt like he could trust Subaru's word, her eyes spoke in sincerity, wisdom, and kindness; and her body spoke confidence. Tsukasa couldn't really help but admit that Subaru was extremely beautiful. Her hair seemed to be a perfect blue color and was nice and tame. Her face seemed to be that of a goddess, and she just seemed to radiate self confidence and inner strength. Tsukasa's feelings were so intense for this woman that it was almost scary, mainly because he hadn't felt anything like that in a long time. Not even he realized his that the last time he had felt anything this strongly was when he was a little child with his mother, back in a time when he had once been happy and loved.

Subaru, however, could not see past icy exterior. Even though Tsukasa was having feelings for Subaru, he didn't let any of it show. He learned long ago that showing emotion right off the bat was a spell for disaster, so he did not let it show to the Lady. "What do you want from me, didn't the others tell you what happened already?"

"Yes, but every person involved with a crime as great as this is a witness, and may know something that others do not. Your and Mimiru's story is the original for what happened with Sora. Though Kite and Black Rose both important, I'd still like to hear what you remember seeing after you entered into the field."

Tsukasa was tempted to just tell Subaru to go to hell since he was doomed anyways, but he decided against it. One, because he like Subaru for some reason; and two, he figured that they may not kill him if he just cooperated. He decided to just tell her almost everything, leaving out the parts about his full powers, the Guardian, and that he had Sora's Member address. After he got done talking, Tsukasa was ready to ask a few of his own questions.

"Who alerted the Knights to what was happening?"

"We don't know, we simply got a message that the bandit Sora was terrorizing a party in a certain location. The person sent it annonomously."

Tsukasa then knew that his messages had also been blocked as well as their warping, but that was a power that not even he knew existed.

"So what happens to us now?"

"I will have Crim escort you back to Dun Loireag, so you will remain safe. He will explain everything to your parents or guardians so you will get into no trouble with them."

"So I'm not going to be detained here?"

Subaru only looked at him in wonder. "Why would you, you have each given your testimony, and all your stories line up with each other, and Sora won't be able to get to you if you stay in a town for a while, so why would you be kept here?."

"I just thought that since we were witnesses and were attacked, then something more would happen." Tsukasa was able to tell this lie quickly because of years of paractice.

Subaru was tempted to be fooled, but the word "detained" had caught her attention. Subaru could see that Tsukasa had been expecting to gain some sort of punishment or arrest for something, but nobody had said anything about him doing something illegal. The others had actually praised him for being the one to protect everyone from Sora with his shield, but now she wasn't sure. Crim had said that they had all just been standing around when the knights had arrived. No sign of even a broken shield and Sora wasn't even attacking them. She knew that they were telling her most of the story, but not all of it.

Since Crim had yet to arrive with the others, Tsukasa was free to ask something that had been on his mind since the Knights had tried to capture Sora. "Why did Crim stay behind to protect us when he could have easily taken on Sora and captured him?"

Subaru didn't feel up to answering another's personal questions, but luckily Crim had been opening the door while he spoke and saved her from answering. "I'll tell you that later, but right now we need to get everyone home, so don't keep them waiting."

Subaru greeted Crim with warmth, affection, and love in her voice. Tsukasa could tell this right away, but could not understand that Subaru only loved Crim, and was not IN love with him. She knew that Crim loved someone else, but Tsukasa didn't have this knowledge and was instantly jealous of Crim for having Subaru's affection.

Subaru then turned to Tsukasa and took his hand. "I really enjoyed spending time with you Tsukasa, even if it was just an interrogation, and I really do wish we can see each other again."

Tsukasa was now confused because of his belief that Subaru was in love with Crim, and was angry that she would play with his emotions like that, so he simply tore himself away from the sweet lady and rudely left without a word. While Subaru was confused and hurt by Tsukasa's rudeness, Crim was immediately able to see it as jealously and told his lady not to take it personally, and that he would talk to Tsukasa before he had to leave him.

Crim found all of the children in the entrance hallway and proceeded to take them to the Chaos Gate. He told them all that he would take Kite home, then Black Rose, then Mimiru, then Tsukasa. While the others didn't mind, Tsukasa knew it was so they could talk privately, he suspected that Crim wanted to yell at him for being rude and possibly even hurt him for it. He dismissed the second part immediately because he could tell that Crim wasn't that type of person, but Tsukasa usually thought of physical harm as one of the first things to happen.

While walking through the city, many of the group took the time to look around at all the buildings and some of the statues of famous warriors and treasure hunters. None of them had been to this city except for some occasional minute purpose. There was one statue that Tsukasa dreaded to walk by, but did anyways and was rewarded by having to stop and hear the many stories of the Blade Master, Tomo-yuki. Each child besides Tsukasa wanted to ask Crim, who had never met the man in person and really knew nothing, if the stories about him were true. The girls wanted to know if he really had wavy blond hair, a perfect lean body, beautiful purple eyes, and a smile that could make anyone faint. Kite wanted to know if the stories of all his adventures were true. If he really could defeat a field of monsters all by himself, if he could wield a blade better then the Descendants of Fiona, about how kind and generous he was, about...

"SHUT UP!!"

Everyone in the area looked at an enraged Tsukasa, who had grown increasingly angry at how THAT man could get praise. He stormed off towards the Chaos Gate, pissed of about how people could really be so gullible as to give a man who was unloving and cruel as his father so much praise.

-------------------(TBC)------------

A/N: I couldn't think of a character I wanted to be Tsukasa's Father, so I just made one up. I thought about putting Balmung as the cruel father, but I like him and don't want him to be that way. I also considered that Komian III guy from .hack:Legend but...(shudders). Tsukasa loves Subaru, Crim loves someone else, and Tsukasa has a dark past with his father, I'm evil for leaving you hanging like this. And Bear will be introduced in the next chapter, possibly Orca as well but you never know.


	6. Revelations

**Disclamer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes: **Ages- Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, BlackRose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru - around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel Bear- Late 30's

Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

I'm sorry for making you wait so long, I have a couple of good excuses. 1) I've been busy with school and other stuff lately. 2) I wanted to take my time with this chapter and make it really good because I felt that the last chapter was horrible. Please forgive me and enjoy.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me insentive to create new chapters and or stories.

Returns to nothing, this world of shadowless ones.

Never to return, the shadowed ones

who quests for the Twilight Dragon.

"Epitaph of Twilight" (Fragment)

**DotHack: Reality ch. 6**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

The group now traveled down a road in Dun Loireag in silence, Mimiru still wondering why Tsukasa would be so angry just because they were talking about a legend that had only died in the world about 7 years ago. Everyone knew the story about how Tomo-yuki had been one of the best and respected of all Blade Masters in history. He had a beautiful wife, Lady Sparrow, also a Blade Master, who had given him a strong healthy son. However, the birth had taken it's toll on Sparrow's body and she became barren. The child was never seen much as he grew older and it was announced when he was 7 years old that he would have the powers of a Wave Master. After that, the child was hardly ever seen again, and worse yet, disappeared 3 years later after both his parents were killed by monsters. Everyone searched Mac Anu for days, but he was never found again. The people didn't even know the child's name because Tomo had kept it a secret until his untimely death.

Mimiru couldn't understand why Tsukasa would flip out over something so small, but decided to let it drop, especially since they were almost to her house and she couldn't wait to see her dad after everything that happened. The trips to Kite and Black Rose's houses were uneventful and almost boring. Unlike Tsukasa and herself, those two's still had their blood parents. Kite's father, Moonstone, was a priest at the Dun Loireag temple and was rarely home. His mother had died in childbirth, so Kite had grown up around temples and was fascinated by history and artifacts. He could easily take care of his house and himself since he had been doing it for years and even invited everyone for dinner, but they all declined since Mimiru and Black Rose's parents would undoubtedly be worried about them, Crim had other things to look into, and Tsukasa was still in a bad mood.

Black Rose's house had been a little more interesting, but not by much. Her father was a bard named Nuke and her mother was a trader named Rachel. Neither were that famous, but both were good enough to have a good life. Crim had herd about an up-and-coming trader named Rachel, but he never thought he would meet her. They were both angry about their daughter being home so late, but calmed down after Crim explained everything to them. They too asked everyone to stay, but their excuses still held and they were off to Mimiru's house.

Adoption is normal in The World, since many people choose to be treasure hunters for a living. Weapons and armor can only be obtained by finding it in dungeons so it is a well paying job, but it is also extremely dangerous because of the monsters. Fields with low level monsters only have normal items, and the rare items are guarded by high powered monsters. The rarer the item, the more powerful the monster. The fact that the profit must be split between all party members who help in retrieving the items forces most people to only form small parties to go to high level areas. It is ok for some parties, but most aren't talented enough to survive high level areas in small parties, and a lot of parents die in the process. That's what happened to Mimiru's parents, but she didn't know why Tsukasa was an orphan, or why Tsukasa stayed at an orphanage. She hated being in that place when she was little, and pitied him because nobody wanted him. 'At least I was adopted by someone, he's so kind and loves me as much as I love him.'

The three finally reached Mimiru's home and entered to find a middle aged Blade Master reading a book in the middle of the living room. He looks up from his book and smiles seeing his daughter has finally gotten home.

"It looks like your finally back Mimiru."

"Of course I am Bear, why else do think I'm here?"

Bear gets up to give Mimiru a hug and kiss, then turns to Crim.

"It's been a while Crim, how are the Knights treating you?"

"It's as good as it usually can get. I know you told me you had adopted a kid before, but I didn't realize it was this little girl here." Crim ruffles Mimiru's hair, and gets daggers shot at him by the teen.

She knocks his hand away and turns to her father, "How do you know Crim, Old Man?"

"He was one of my best students while I taught at the school in Lia Fail. I knew he'd do great things one day, but I never suspected he would become a living legend and help form the Crimson Knights."

While Bear rattled on about how his teaching days in Lia Fail, Tsukasa looked around the room and examined the house. Like Subaru's room, there wasn't too many extravagant things, It was a round room with a table in the middle, a window on one side, and a few nice couches covering about half of the outer circle. Also like Subaru's, he had a huge collection of books including may history texts, and many stories of high level reading. Tsukasa was impressed by the variety and wondered if Bear knew the lady of the Knights.

Mimiru was getting board from listening to the two older men talking so she drug Tsukasa to her room to show him some of her stuff. Her room wasn't impressive at all, just a square room with a closet, a bed, a chest, and a shelf with a few items on it. Most were just ordinary items, but there were two or three rare items that she could sell for a little bit of money, but that wasn't important to the Wave Master at the moment.

"Mimiru, why didn't you turn me in to the Crimson Knights?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know that I have illegal powers because I can summon the Guardian, and that I was able to defeat most of the monsters so quickly even though a normal Wave Master couldn't have done all that by himself. Why didn't you tell the Crimson Knights about it and get some sort of reward?"

Mimiru just looked at him for a moment thinking that he was crazy for thinking like that. "Because I know that you are a good person and wouldn't use your powers to harm people. I don't like that law about illegal powers anyways and don't think its fair for people to die just because of something they can't control. I guess the main reason is because I didn't want to loose a friend."

Mimiru gives Tsukasa a big smile and Tsukasa looks down deep in thought. 'Maybe Kite and Black Rose think the same thing, maybe both of them didn't want me to die because they think of me as a friend now. I've never really had anyone who wanted to be my friend before, it kinda feels nice.'

"My turn. You don't have to answer if you don't feel up to it, but why did you explode back at Tomo-yuki's statue?"

Tsukasa's good mood was destroyed in less then a second with that one question and he wanted to tell Mimiru off right then and there, but realized that she was just being as curious as he had been. The first thing she had said was that he didn't have to answer, but he felt he should at least be a little kind to her for not turning her in. He decided to only tell her a half lie.

"I knew Tomo before he died, and he wasn't kind at all. He was rude, self centered, and a stuck-up jerk, but everyone thinks of him as some sort of god. It just really gets to me that people could almost worship someone like that."

Mimiru was speechless just by the fact that he **knew** the legend, but was shocked by what he said. She started to ask for more details, but immediately stopped as soon as she saw the look on Tsukasa face that told her that he wouldn't be answering any more questions. The two of them sat in silence for a while until they hear foot steps coming to the door. Bear appeared at the door saying that Tsukasa had to leave. They both sighed and left to go to the front door where Bear stopped Tsukasa for a second.

"Here, I think this was the one you were interested in."

He hands over a book that Tsukasa had been looking at earlier. It was one he had been interested in reading for a long time, but could never find anywhere. He was so shocked that it actually showed on his face (that's one of the rarest things in The World, where's Mireille with a camera when it counts the most) and Bear only laughed after seeing his expression.

"I expect to get that back eventually, but keep it for as long as you need."

The Wave Master could only stammer out a "thank you" and ran out side to where Crim was waiting. The two walked for a few minutes in silence with Tsukasa in the lead, thinking about everything that had happened in the course of one day, being trapped by Sora, meeting Subaru, becoming closer to Mimiru, Bear giving him the book, a lot of misery and a lot kindness; one he is used to, and one he could hardly remember ever getting. Needless to say, he was a very confused teen who had enough to try and figure out before Crim started talking to him.

"Tsukasa I need to tell you something very important." The Wave Master only looks at the Long Arm, not knowing if he can handle a lecture about being polite right now. "I love Subaru very deeply, but I am not **in** love with her." Tsukasa only looks at him completely lost, so he explains a little more. "There are many different types of love in this world my young friend. The love of a job, the love between family members, and the love between a husband and wife. When a person talks about the love of a job or the love of a family member, it is usually referred to as just Love. Love between a boyfriend and girlfriend, or between husband and wife is called being **in** love with them."

Crim and Tsukasa have stopped while talking, Crim bends down and looks Tsukasa in the eyes at eye level and continues talking. "I may love Subaru, but it is like the love between father and child, or the love between siblings. She isn't the person that I love the most, and as far as I know, she isn't that interested in anyone else right now." The Wave Master has already knows what Crim means and is sickened by the fact that he was so rude to her and has ruined his chance to get to know her. Crim continues as if reading his mind, "Lady Subaru is a very forgiving person and would probably understand if you just apologies to her. There's going to be a festival in Mac Anu this weekend, and I'm sure that Subaru would love to see you there."

"I can't leave to go to another town, so I can't go to the Festival of the Setting Sun or the Festival of the Rising Moon."

Crim is a little surprised that he knows the names of the festivals of another town, "You can if I get you and bring you their as a guest, you can even bring a few friend with you if you want, but not too many. By the way, how come you know the names for both the festivals for the two days?"

"I've read about them before, but I've gone to either of them." He was only partly lying since he had grown up in Mac Anu for the first 10 years of his life, but had been forbidden by his father from ever going out to enjoy the festivals. That was only one of the many reasons why Tsukasa hated his father. "All right, deal. You come to pick me up at mid-day on Saturday." Tsukasa gave a genuine smile of happiness (another rarity, where are you Mirelle!) and the two began walking again.

They continued to walk while Tsukasa asked Crim another serious question. "So why didn't you fight Sora back at the field?"

The red clad man hesitated for a few seconds before answering his question. "We used to be best friends at one point. Nobody could believe it because we were polar opposites, but we did everything together since we were both 7. We both caused Bear and the other teachers quite a lot of trouble when we were in school, but after that we started to drift apart. We lost contact for a little while Subaru and I formed the Crimson Knights, but we met up again one day in a field. We got back to a town and started talking for a little while, and I invited him to join the Knights with me. He accepted, which surprised me, but it turned out to be a trick just to steal something from Lady Subaru. Even though he betrayed my trust and my friendship that day, I'm still uncomfortable with fight him because of our history. That is not something easy to forget, no matter what a person does to you."

Tsukasa was shocked to hear about the past of the two enemies, but didn't mind that much, since he could finally see the orphanage. Crim only frowned at the site of the run down building that was suppose to be a home for children. The outside looked like it could use a good rub down, new walls, and some new windows since many were broken. He wasn't impressed with the inside either because of all the dust everywhere and the cracks in the walls. He was going to have to talk to someone about this place and have an investigation on the person who runs it.

Tsukasa only got 5 feet into the house when he was tackled by 3 little children, each around 8 or 9 years old. Tsukasa was the oldest people in the orphanage, and was respected and loved my many for it. The children were the only ones to see his good side on a daily basis, since he tried his best to keep them in line and protect them. The 3 who attacked him were some of his most loyal followers who would do anything for him, even though he never asked for anything.

"Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima, what have I said about attacking?"

"No to" Reki says, "but we haven't seen you in so long, you haven't been here all day and we wanted you to take us out to the park."

"Why didn't you ask Miss Ninni (a fat woman with short brown hair and an inferiority complex)?"

"You always told us not to go near her when she's drunk, and she's been drunk all day today." A-20 is the new speaker.

Crim's scowl grows even deeper hearing that their care taker is usually drunk on the job and makes a vow to look into this himself sometime before the Festivals began. He and Tsukasa say their good buys and Crim returns to Mac Anu while Tsukasa puts his personal charges to bed with promises of park time the next day, then heading upstairs to get some sleep himself. His last thought before he fell asleep was that he actually had a good time today and that he had something to look forward to for the rest of the week.

----------------(TBC)-----------

**Mirelle:** (Waving pictures at everyone around her) Looky what I got. (Shows Tsukasa pictures of him with a surprised look on his face and him with a smile.) I'm gona put them in my Ultra Rare Stash section.

**Tsukasa**: Where'd you get those!! O.o

**Mirelle**: I was using an ultra zoom camera to get your picture from a far away distance. Don't you think the smiling one is cute? o

**Tsukasa**: NO I DON'T!! Give them to me now!!. (Makes a grab for the pictures but Mirelle

runs off.) GET BACK HERE!! (Chases after her)

**A/N**: Thank you for the constructive criticism Dark Dragon (guggles him). I will try to do better, but don't expect miracles or things to be perfect. And its ok to be nit picky, I need to get consructive criticism if I want to be better. And I will not make Balmung evil, he'll just on Helba's team because he is a mutant (the wings growing out of his back).

Yes, I have played all the games, watched all the TV animes, watched the OVA's, and are reading the mangas. Here's a secret for all you .hack fans. On disks 2-4 of the extra's menus for the OVA's, hit the right arrow button while you have the cursor on one of the menu items. Try this on all of the items because the cursor will sometimes disappear, if it does disappear completely (no text is highlighted or selected anywhere) hit enter and you will get extra info on the game and about the show.


	7. Fesival Fun

**Disclamer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes: **Ages- Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, BlackRose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru - around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's

Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8

Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

I'm sorry for making you wait so long, I have a couple of good excuses. 1) I've been busy with school and other stuff lately. 2) I wanted to take my time with this chapter and make it really good because I felt that the last chapter was horrible. Please forgive me and enjoy.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me insentive to create new chapters and or stories

The whole cannot be changed. We have already lost that chance.

Because the time left to us was short, We were mistaken in our path.

But now do we realize, We should change not the whole, But the Parts.

"Epitaph of Twilight" (Fragment)

**DotHack: Reality ch. 7**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

Saturday had finally come after, what Tsukasa could classify as, a fairly good week. First, he got his report cut down to eight pages thanks to his encounter with Sora. Before he left, Crim had talked to BT and convinced her to trim down his report because of everything that had happened to him. She thought it was his own fault for going out into a high level field on a whim, but did understand that being trapped in the field and terrorized by a thief hadn't been their planned day so she had given in, but not by much. With all the new ideas that he got from the outing, Tsukasa could have easily have made a twelve-page essay, but cut it down to eight so he wouldn't be a show off.

Mimiru, Kite, and Black Rose were all keeping their mouths shut about his powers, which he had been grateful for since he didn't want to die. They had also been treating him with more kindness and had been asking him how he was. He was beginning to respond to them a little more then just a one word "fine" or "bad", actually thanked Kite and Black Rose for not ratting him out, and had even had a short conversation with Mimiru about his Guardian. He had also invited all of them to the Festivals in Mac Anu, forcing all of them to have a double take on what he had said and ask if he was feeling ok. This only slightly annoyed Tsukasa because he knew they were all joking, they all asked their parents if they could go, and all of them agreed after they found out that the Red Thunder himself would be their escort. Bear was going as well since he had always wanted to see Mac Anu's famous fall harvest festivals where people give praise to the Twilight Dragon and to nature.

Tsukasa had also taken his little fan club to the park to keep his promise to them. He had worked on his paper during that time and had told the three of them his plans for the weekend. He soon found this to be a mistake since it caused an eruption of begging and pleading from the children to be taken as well. He had said no at first since he didn't want any of them to get lost in another city, but finally caved after three hours of constant begging, wining, and puppy-dog eyes. He figured that his friends could help him look after the chibies, and there was also Bear and Crim who would help as well.

One of the best things was that happened was that he finally got to see the sleeping girl somewhere during his three days of chaos. He didn't know how he had found the small girl that was fast asleep and floating above a bed, but he knew he liked to be with her. One day a year ago, he had been cleaning out a dungeon with his Guardian and had finally gotten down to the Got Statue. When he opened the box, there was a light so blinding that he had to close his eyes, after he reopened them he found himself in a strange field with the girl. After he left, he found that he needed a Chaos gate back to the area, but he could go there if he wanted to. He never told anyone about that place and never planned on taking anyone there, since he felt that it was the one place or thing in The World that was truly his, and not just borrowed.

In the course of the three days Tsukasa also began reading the book he had gotten from Bear, The Epitaph of Twilight, by Emma Wieland. It was the only original text made while the war against the "Wave" was in progress. It gave a description of the world before the war, what happened during the war, how the war ended, and the aftermath of everything. Large sections of the text were still missing, but people were able to piece everything together after a while and fill in the blanks. Most history texts were made long after the Abominable Wave was defeated, and there was no personal knowledge of those involved with it's defeat, but Emma had been their, she saw and knew what was going on, and personally knew the people who had fought the hardest. It was rumored that she and Herald were also lovers, but that could not be proven. The only reason the text was not taught in schools was that it was only copied a few times. It was discovered that those who copied it die in the most gruesome ways possible, or suffer unimaginable insanity.

Tsukasa gave a slight smile when he saw the trio run up to him, dressed in traditional kimonos for the two-day event. The festivals would start at mid-day of Saturday, go all night, and end at mid-day Sunday. All the kids love it since they get to stay up all night partying without getting yelled at by their parents. Reki, A-20, and Ryoko were just as exited for those reasons plus they got to go to another city, which was completely new for all of them. Most orphans their age never even get to go outside of the orphanage area, let alone out of the town. Seeing that they all had everything they needed (weapons, money, extra bags, extra cloths, and maps of the town with info on were to go) they set off for the Chaos Gate where they would meet up with Crim and the others.

Black Rose and Kite were waiting at the gate and were surprised to see the little kids with him and began to ask questions about them. Tsukasa explained about the kids being with him at the orphanage and begging to go with them. Mimiru and Bear came in half way through the explanation and were able to fill in the blanks from where they came in. They waited there for about ten minutes before Crim finally showed up, when he saw the crowd, he thought Tsukasa went a little overboard. When he had invited him to bring some friends, he had expected him to only invite two or three people, not seven; three of them under ten no less. The others did seem to be responsible, and since Bear had decided to join them the burden wasn't all his to bear, so he was ok with it. He also had a friend to introduce to the orphans, and she could help out as well. Crim raised his spear high into the air and said, "You all ready to have some fun?" He was met with a chorus of excited "yes" and they were off to Mac Anu for, for many of them, their first festival in Mac Anu.

As they warped in, they were all hit with a blast of music and laughing coming from all around them. Stalls were set up in the streets, people lined up to buy from them. Musicians were playing fast paced tunes that were making many dance wherever they could. The streets were overflowing with people; many little kids were running in between crowds and stands, playing games with one another. The streets themselves were covered with figures and ropes of harvest waste, like parts of foods they didn't use. A few powerful Wave Masters had even used their magic to make glowing lights that changed color every few seconds. It really was a site to behold.

The little ones were overflowing with excitement and started running down the streets to join in the fun, but they were soon held back by the powerful arms of two adults and four teens who didn't want them all to get lost so soon. Reki, A-20, and Ryoko all started struggling to break free while an unknown woman started to mock them.

"The great and powerful Red Thunder who commands all the Silver Knights can't even get three little kids under control, I never thought I'd see the day."

They all looked over to see a tall, beautiful, blond long arm smiling at their predicament. Crim stands up to greet her while the others force the kids to hold still for a minute. "It's been a long time since I've seen the legendary Gardenia how have you been?"

"Fine. I got your job offer and wanted to tell you that I think its interesting. I'd have to check it out first but I think I'm up to it."

Crim turned to Tsukasa and the other orphans and addressed them. "I want you to meet Miss. Gardenia, she is going to be the new head of your orphanage by the beginning of next week." Everyone only stairs at him like he's talking gibberish, so Crim continues. "I've been looking into your caretaker's history, and got more then enough evidence to get her thrown out of the entire city forever. I've taken it up with your city's Administrators and they have agreed to get rid of her and put in Gardenia as your new caretaker. She worked in the local orphanage for about 5 year's so she's more then qualified. I wanted her to join us today to meet Tsukasa and see what he thought, but now it looks like I have even more people to introduce her too."

The little kids were overjoyed by this news because it meant that they wouldn't have to be afraid anymore. Ninni was a horrible woman who was mean even when she wasn't drunk, she only rarely did anything around the house because she had become so fat, and used a lot of the funds for repairing and cleaning the orphanage to buy liquor. The trio quickly broke out of the grasp of the older people and flung themselves at the new woman. Gardenia quickly fell because she wasn't expecting such a hello, but kept smiling at the children's enthusiasm. Tsukasa only looked on judging the new woman. He was only staying in the orphanage for another year, and he was really afraid to leave with Ninni still around, since he was really the only one who could challenger her and stop her from doing anything too harmful to any of the little kids. Without him there, nobody would be able to stand up for the orphans, so he really needed to do his self appointed job and make sure this new woman was strong and kind enough to take care of all the kids.

After everyone exchanged a few pleasantries, they decided to split up into two groups. Crim, Kite, Black Rose, and Mimiru would go off one way, while Gardenia, Tsukasa, Bear, A-20, Reki, and Ryoko would go another, they would all meet up in two hours at the central bridge for a speech from Subaru then go from their.

Crim's group walked around looking at all the shops and buying a few souvenirs, until they came upon a strange person in a strange costume. Costumes on festival days weren't that new, but nobody had ever done a cat mime before. Half pinkish purple, half white with completely red eyes, and a hat with ears popping out of the top of the hat, it was by far one of the most convincing costumes Crim had ever seen. The cat performed many mimicking stunts, while also doing a few slight of hand magic tricks that got many a spectator clapping and throwing change into the cat's bag that it set out. Mimiru gave out her fair share of coins as well and even asked what his name was. The cat only gave Mimiru a card that said "Macha (pronounced Ma-ha and yes that is how it's spelt, I don't know why, but it is.)" without saying a word and returned to doing his tricks. Kite put a little bit of coins in Macha's bag and thanked him for a nice performance and they all walked off. Nobody knew that Macha wore no costume, but was a mutant. A strange mutant that looked like a human cat, instead of just having some sort of mutated appendage like many do. He quickly told his mistress by telepathy that he had found Kite, and was now on the lookout for Tsukasa.

Tsukasa's group also came across an odd commodity after a little time of wandering. Everything about the city excited the children, and Gardenia was beginning to gain Tsukasa's approval, seeing how she was able to keep track of the three energetic midgets without any help from Bear. Like Mimiru's group, they all were seeing the sites and buying souvenirs, but the kids really couldn't decide what to buy since there was so much and everything was so new to them. Their money was given to them by Tsukasa who got it from a dungeon, so they wanted to get something that would last for a long time. Ryoko had already gotten a beaded necklace with a small emerald in the front. A-20 had gotten a pair of dangling ear rings with sapphire in them. Reki was the only one who was undecided, spilt between getting an accessory which increased defensive magic, or one that increases offensive magic. A-20 and Ryoko's items didn't have any magic enhancements, and that's what Reki wanted. He finally decided on the defensive item since it looked cooler to him; it was a broach with red stones in the form of a shield. Tsukasa was the only one still looking over him, since the others had gone to see a display which had gathered quite a large crowd.

They discovered a small girl with two pets putting on a show. One pet was a baby grunty, the other was a rather large dog. The girl, being a Wave Master, had enough magic to make a few obstacles of fire and ice appear for the animals to jump over and maneuver through. She also had a few balls and rings which her pets stood on and jumped through as well. The grunty was only a baby and didn't do much, but the dog was spectacular, jumping over everything, doing back flips, standing on it's hind legs, there was nothing it couldn't do. Many cheered and many coins were given to her, some people even gave out food for the grunty and the dog as well. Tsukasa himself wasn't too impressed by the displays, but the others loved it and couldn't get enough. The only other one of their small group was Reki, he was so mesmerized by the girl that he didn't realize that he was suppose to be clapping. Tsukasa was able to notice this immediately and knew that he had a crush on the little girl. He was a little troubled at the idea of Reki having a crush on someone who he wouldn't see after today, but decided that it was ok.

The girl finally announced that her name was Hotaru with her amazing dog Ouka and her grunty, Grunty. She was finally ready to do their finally, but needed a volunteer from the audience for help. Every little kid in the area was yelling and waving their hands trying to get her attention, all except for Reki because he was too embarrassed to go up with the same girl who he thought was the most beautiful in the entire world. When Tsukasa realized that Reki wasn't planning to even try to get Hotaru's attention he decided to give him a push, literally. Hotaur's attention was immediately captured by a young boy who came stumbling out of the audience and fell on his face. Reki only looked back and glared at Tsukasa for pushing him onto the ground, but froze and slowly turned his head when someone his age put her hand onto his shoulder. He as staring into the face of his Hotaru, and when she asked how he was, he immediately began to blush as bright of a color red as humanly possible (or animely possible).

"Do you wana help me with my last act?"

The young boy could only blush even brighter and nod his head while Hotaru helped him up and held his arm while she announced that she finally had a volunteer, gaining many cries of disappointment from everyone. The only thing going through Reki's mind was 'I can't believe I'm touching her. I can't believe I'm touching her. I can't believe I'm touching her.' Hotaru gave him three glowing orbs, which all contained an advanced spell made by a friend of hers. When she said so, he was to break the orbs of magic with his hands and release the spells. Hotaru set Ouka up to make a running jump, the first jump was normal, and one of the spells were activated to make sparkles flutter down around the dog, the second flip was magically enhanced by Hotaru, which made Ouka jump twice as high, and the spell which was activated caused live sparkles to go zooming around the area. The third and final jump was even higher then before and everyone was amazed when the third spell formed a dragon of sparkles which at Ouka, but then exploded and disbursed showering everyone with beautiful sparkles which didn't burn, but didn't die out at all. They were like little glowing fire flies softly lighting the area, if it had been at night, it would have been the most romantic thing ever.

The applause afterwards were none stop as were the cash flow and grunty food. It was almost too much for Hotaru to handle, but not with Ouka and Reki helping her collect everything as well. Everyone else with Reki also help with collecting stray items, and return them with smiles and introductions. Reki introduced Hotaru to everyone, the little ones wanting to know if they could pet/ride her big dog. Hotaru agreed to this, which made Ouka cringe inside, knowing just how much she was her father in liking to torture her. While she was busy being crushed by two little girls, the adults and Tsukasa stayed behind to ask some questions.

"So Hotaru, are you here all alone?" Bear asked.

"I have Ouka with me, but other than her, no. My daddy couldn't come today because he was to busy. He collects treasures, but hasn't been doing very well lately." Hotaru never was one for telling lies, but she could bend the truth amazingly well. Sora had always told her never to talk about her home, who he was, or that Ouka was a werewolf, so Hotaru was just as vague in her descriptions. Sora was a treasure hunter, but he stole other people's treasures, and he couldn't get the treasure from Kite, so it was true that he wasn't doing well lately. Nobody suspected anything bad from a cute little girl though, so everyone believed in her vague descriptions and just accepted it all.

The center town bell rang, indicating that time had flown and it was already time for the two groups to meet up and have lunch together. Everyone started to say goodbye to Hotaru, but Reki cut them all off.

"If you don't have anyone to spend the day with, why don't you eat with us?"

Hotaru didn't know how to react to that, so she looked over to Ouka for a little guidance. The werewolf only nodded her head, saying that it was all right.

"Sure! Is that ok with you sir?" Addressing Bear.

"Why not, everyone else should be ok with it."

"Everyone else?"

"Our friends split up with another adult so we could move around easier." Ryoko explained. "Were going to meet up with them and then go have some lunch."

"Sounds like fun" replied Hotaru.

Tsukasa was next to speak since he is getting a little impatient but still glad that Reki had made a friend. "Then lets go and get some food."

---------------(TBC)---------------

**A/N**:

I was originally going to make this one huge one combined with the next chapter, but decided against it becasue this one is taking to long. And I finally was able to get Aura back into this whole mess. Thats a lot of work when you don't really have everything planned out. I'm planning on reposting some of the other sections soon to improve on the content and to add the summary.

**Fuzzyhead**: Yes, this isn't part of a game, but reality itself. I need to redo the summary to include that.

**the-dragon-of-darkness-17**: I'm taking my time and reading the stuff before I post. Thanks for your hints. And I'm now publicly sorry for calling you a guy, you can't know these things from just reading stuff.

**Blackheart Syaoran:** Thank you for your constant reviews and support BH Syaoran.

**Vampwriter:** Thanks for the reviews, I alwasy need them.


	8. Festival Ruin

**Disclamer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes: **Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru-around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's

Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8

Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

I'm sorry for making you wait so long, I have a couple of good excuses. 1) I've been busy with school and other stuff lately. 2) I wanted to take my time with this chapter and make it really good because I felt that the last chapter was horrible. Please forgive me and enjoy.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

When the finger points to the yonder moon, the fool will not look at the fingertip.

"Epitaph of Twilight" (Fragment)

**DotHack: Reality ch. 8**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

Tsukasa's and Crim's group met up with each other at the central bridge of Mac Anu, where Lady Subaru would make her appearance and giver her speech, after Tsukasa had a chance to apologies to her he hoped. All of the Crim's group were surprised to see a new girl with holding hands with Reki, a grunty in her arms, and a dog trailing behind her. Ryoko and Bear both explained the show Hotaru had put on and how Reki had invited her to eat with them. They were all glad to have a new friend with them, and they all settled down on the sidewalk on one side of the bridge to eat food they had brought with them or purchased at a stand. They ate and talked for about ten minutes, everyone telling everyone else about the things they had seen or bought.

Reki told Crim about his new charm, and the Silver Knight leader examined it with great care. After he was done, he told the boy that he had made a good choice in items, since that charm had really powerful spells on it.

"I never would have known which shops to go to if Tsukasa hadn't given me a map with the best places to go to."

"He gave you a map?"

"Yep" Reki then pulls out his map and shows Crim the details Tsukasa had made in which shops to go to for good spells, and which had the best jewelry in general. That didn't surprise Crim too much since that info could be gotten with ease, but then he noticed things like places to hid if he got in trouble, back alleys that were short cuts, but weren't well known or weren't talked about a lot. Things that only someone who had been to Mac Anu before would know. Crim had liked Tsukasa before, but now grew extremely suspicious about the fact that the Wave Master had lied to him to his face without breaking a sweat and was able to fool the Red Thunder himself. Tsukasa had his back turned to them, so he saw none of this nor herd any of it because he was listening to a conversation between Hotaru, Kite, and Mimiru. Crim now knew how good of a liar Tsukasa really was, and wondered about everything he had ever seen him do or say. He decided to just let everything proceed normally, but he would watch the teen Wave Master more closely then he had in the past.

As they were finishing eating lunch, the clock struck three and Crim got up to leave. He had to escort Subaru to the bridge for her speech, but he had another hour before that happened. He wanted to take Tsukasa to see his lady since it was something that he had promised. Though he knew that the boy was a good liar, he was also sure that Tsukasa like Subaru, and wouldn't do anything to harm her. Tsukasa hadn't really harmed anyone with his lies, but he was hiding something with them and Crim had a feeling that it was a big something.

"It's time for you to see Subaru again Tsukasa"

"Why does he have to see Subaru again?" Black Rose asked.

"There was something that happened on the day we were attacked that I need to discuss with her." This wasn't a lie because he had been rude, but he made it sound like it wasn't personal, but something about the attack. Crim could understand a lone wolf not wanting people knowing he has a crush, but he was still amazed by the way he could lie so easily and convince people he was actually telling the truth. As they headed off to the meeting place, two sets of eyes were watching the duo, one belonging to an outlawed human mutant, and one belonged to a monster lurking in the shadows, waiting for it's chance to strike it's prey. Both hidden so not to draw attention of the crowds.

Tsukasa and Crim arrived at the Crimson Knights HQ and headed for Subaru's room. The Wave Master was attacked by Mistral along the way, wanting to say hello. When Tsukasa said, "Hello Mistral" she only giggled non stop until Crim asked if there was something wrong.

A voice behind them then said, "To bad MY name is Mistral"

Both men looked behind them and saw a Mistral copy, also giggling. Tsukasa then looked down at the girl hugging her. "Then you must be Mireille,. right?" Mireille said yes while nodding her head enthusiastically.

"I'm here in town for the day and wanted to spend it with my lovely sister. I didn't know I'd get you meet you today though." She glanced at Mistral for a second before looking deep into Tsukasa's eyes. "Your just as cute and sexy as Mistral told me."

Tsukasa gulps and sweat drops at this while trying to get out of Mireille's grasp, but she holds on tight. Mistral breaks out laughing as does her sister at Tsukasa's predicament, until Tsukasa finally yells, "What is so funny?!"

"Just that you're not really my sister's type my little Wave Master."

"What is your type then?"

"Long hair, great eyes, strong, gentle, breasts..."

Tsukasa only stares at the two after the last description, then actually gives a slight smile finally realizing that he isn't Mireille's type because she doesn't like any guys that way.

"I find it fun to just do that to random guys and see how much they'll play along until I finally tell them that I'm gay. The looks on their faces are always priceless." Mireille, being the rare hunter that she is, can't help but be attracted to anything rare, valuable, or priceless.

"Come on little one, we've gotta see Subaru so you can get back to you little friends. I don't trust them to stay out of trouble, even with Gardenia there..." Crim was cut off by Mireille grabbing him and pulling him down to her level with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

"Gardenia's here? WHERE!!"

"On a side walk near the main bridge." the male Wave Master answers.

"YAHOO, MY GARDENIA IS HERE. Let me at her, LET ME AT HER." She smiled like she had found the rarest thing in the world and, after saying a quick good bye to her sister, ran off faster then the wind.

The other three only stood there sweat dropping until Tsukasa finally asked Crim, "Is Gardenia gay as well?"

"No, but just because you can't have something, doesn't mean you can't dream about it. She's just chasing a dream, so don't worry about anything." The two proceeded to say good bye to Mistral then head to Subaru's room. Once there, Tsukasa could only stand outside of Subaru's door, too afraid to face her after how rude he had been. Crim could see his nervousness and went in to announce him to the Lady, then came out a moment later saying it was ok to enter. The Crimson Knight was a little amused by the fact that Tsukasa was so nervous that he was actually showing it and watched as he entered the room, knowing for certain that the Wave Master would never harm Subaru. He didn't know that something had followed both of them, and was waiting to attack Tsukasa while there was no one strong around to help him, and had snuck into the room while Crim had held the door open for Tsukasa to go in.

Inside the room, both Tsukasa and Subaru stood to greet one another in silence, since neither knew how to begin. The Wave Master had never had good people skills, so he was at a loss, while the Heavy Axe Woman didn't know how to greet someone in a situation like the one they were in. After about ten seconds of silence, the boy was finally able to start things off by simply saying, "I'm sorry.

"I was wrong to be so rude to you. I just wanted to tell you that I'm sorry... I've never really been good with words, but I do like you Subaru, and wondered if I could get to know you..." Tsukasa felt like a rambling idiot, and was, for once in his life, regretful that he never really learned how to interact with another person.

Subaru walked up to Tsukasa and took his hand and looked him in the eyes. "I'd like that too, I would like to get to know you as well Tsukasa, and thank you for apologizing, it means a lot to me."

The boy only looked at Subaru and smiled wondering what to do next. He didn't get a chance to even consider, because a new voice spoke up, a voice of darkness and evil, "How touching, to bad you won't be alive long enough to enjoy each other's company."

(Bridge Sidewalk)

The group had gotten done eating and was just enjoying talking to one another when there was a loud yell headed their direction. "GARDENIAAAAAA.... WHERE ARE YOU MY GARDENIAAAAAA!"

Everyone looked up to see a young female Wave Master heading straight for their group. The teens had all seen her sister at the Crimson Knight HQ, but couldn't tell the difference. The only one there who was able to distinguish was Gardenia, because she knew that only Mireille would be this happy to see her. The children backed away from the screaming teen heading straight for them, while Bear only looked on in amusement. Hotaru was the only child still sitting on the ground because she had met Mireille before and knew about her sexual preferences because she had hit on Ouka a few times when they had met. The werewolf sweat dropped on the inside knowing how over enthusiastic this Wave Master could become when it came to things that she loved. As Mireille got closer, (and this was quickly since she's still going faster then the wind) the Long Arm rose to meet her, but was quickly knocked onto her back as the young girl tackled her into an unbreakable hug. Mireille gave out deadly hugs, and cried tears of joy while saying, "I can't believe its been so long since I've last seen you my precious Gardenia, my lovely love, my heart and soul."

"It's only been a week"

"A week without seeing you is like centuries to me! I haven't been happy all the time I've been away from you."

"Even though you threw a party on Thursday from finding another extremely rare item. According to a few friends of mine, you were smiling like there was no tomorrow and had been happy throughout the entire adventure."

"Well... can't be wallowing in sorrow all the time." Mireille knew that Gardenia didn't like her that way, but couldn't help but love the Long Arm. She finally let go and helped her friend up, then turned to a group of stunned children, teens, and an adult. "It's nice to see you again Hotaru, how've you been?"

"Very good."

"And how's Ouka been" The Wave Master bent down to pet the dog, knowing fully well what she really was. She also knew the werewolf didn't want to draw attention to herself, and wouldn't transform then and there to beat the girl senseless for the disrespect she was getting.

"I want you to meet a few friends of mine, this is Reki, A-20, Ryoko, Kite, Black Rose, Mimiru, and Bear."

After saying a quick hello to the children and to Bear, she stared closely at the teens, wondering if they were really the ones who she had been told about. "So, you're the ones who were attacked by Sora, my sister told me about you. I am Mireille, The Rare Item Hunter of Love and Courage."

Kite is the first to speak, "Oh, so you're Mireille, I thought you were Mistral when you first ran up. You two look exactly alike."

"We are twins. I can't believe Sora would attack some teens like you." She gives an evil glint in her eyes, one of want and possession. "The item you had must have been really rare, tell me what it was; PLEASE TELL ME WHAT IT WAS!"

While the teens had been talking, the children had moved over to there new caretaker and was asking her questions about why Mireille had been saying that she lover her. "Because she likes women that way. Some women aren't attracted to men that way, but are attracted to other women. The same is for some men, they aren't attracted to women, but to other men. It's called homosexuality."

"Do you like that girl in that way?" asks A-20

"No, but that doesn't mean she can't still be in love with me."

Black Rose was about to answer Mireille's question when they heard more screaming, this time not of happiness, but of terror and fear. Everyone rushed to see where this yelling was coming from, and found a group of people being attacked by a group of Wasp monsters. Another group was being threatened by Goblins, Witches were causing fires, Mimics biting people, and Shogan monsters terrorized civilians with their blades. Everyone looked at the ensuing chaos and wondered how this many monsters had gotten into the city undetected, and were thankful that to have all the Crimson Knights, even Crim, out on the streets protecting the civilians. Nobody could see that this was all a diversion to make one person unprotected, all set up by one monster with the intelligence to know when to strike his prey, and that without Crim to help them, Tsukasa and Subaru were at that monster's mercy.

----------------(TBC)----------------

**A/N:** How evil of me to leave it here. I guess I'll have to split this up into even more stories, but it's getting good.

And if you don't like homosexual relationships in a story, I'm not forcing you to read this fan fic, so stop reading if you don't like it because I'm not changing anything. There will be no Lemony goodness in this story, but that doesn't stop me from putting in gay or lesbian characters into this thing. It's actually better this way since it gives me a hell-of-a-lot more plot twists I can put into my story. hehehehehe.

**Blackheart Syaoran**- Macha will be helpful in the next chapter, and thanks for continually reviewing.

**Vampwriter**- I wasn't sure how to write out the little kid crush part, I hope I did good. And I would never leave that bitch Ninni in charge of kids in my story for too long. Thank you for your support.


	9. Fesival Attack

**Disclaimer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes: **Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru-around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia, Kamui, Balmung- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's

Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8

Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

" 'But why, why can't I use it?' 'We're a party and we'll defeat this thing by working together. That's what makes this game fun, regardless of who wins or loses. If you use the power of the Guardian, you're no different from the monsters. Selfish hu?' "

-Hacksign quote: Tsukasa and Mimiru (episode 11)-

**DotHack: Reality ch. 9**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

Tsukasa and Subaru both looked quickly at the speaker, but could not see him anywhere. They both began to wonder if they had herd something when the Wave Master felt a hand begin to choke him, but he could not see anything. Subaru was startled when Tsukasa began to choke, but was completely scared when he was lifted off the ground by an unseen force. She began to look around for anything odd in the room, and found what she was looking for when her eyes came in contact with the ground. She knew what she had to do, and raced to get a bright candle, while Tsukasa wondered if she was out of her mind. He was surprised when she held the candle in front of him and felt the hand let go, letting him fall to the floor gasping for air. As he caught his breath, he saw that Subaru was looking at something on the ground, when he looked as well, he found a shadow without a body.

"How clever of you to discover my special talent," it said. Before their eyes, the shadow began to lift off the floor and take the form of a monster with no legs, but one shaft rising from the ground, arms sprouted from the shaft, as well as a head. The head had only one large eye and mouth filled with sharp teeth. No hair was on its body, nor did it seem to have skin; it only seemed to be made out of slime (If you have played "Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits" I based this guy off the monsters you encounter in the Cave of Truth. The ones attacking Darc and Lilia when you first enter.)

"Who and what are you?" Subaru demanded with great authority.

"Such a powerful little girl, I am Shadow Slime, a monster of tremendous force, and the bringer of your death."

"How did you get in here, and what do you want with us."

"While your friend Crim held the door open, I snuck in here in my shadow form. As for what I want, it is nothing more then to kill you."

"Why do you want to kill us?" Tsukasa demanded.

"Because it is what my master demands, 'Kill the young Wave Master born of a false hero, and keep yourself a secret.' You are the Wave Master, and you have seen me in my true form; neither of you are allowed to live now."

The creature had been making gestures with it's hands till now, but now his arms morphed into swords. Tsukasa began to fear for Subaru's safety, and decided to take action by sending a powerful thunderbolt at the monster, hoping that it's light would help dispel the monster like the candle flame had. His eyes grew wide as his attack seemed to blow the monster apart, but then grew fearful as the monster began to reform itself form the slime particles scattered around the room.

Shadow Slime only smiled at the Wave Master knowing he would try an electric attack to get rid of him. "Did you really think it would be that easy? Light only hurts me in my shadow form, and attacks do nothing to a monster of slime, you should personally know that by know summoner."

His last line puzzled Subaru, but troubled Tsukasa. The creature knew he could summon his Guardian. "I've been watching you for a long time boy. Since last week, I've been studying you, learning what you can and cannot do. I know about your special powers, and about your Guardian. Neither will help you win against me. Like your beast, I am immune to attacks and magic. Nothing will help you escape."

Subaru was listing intensely to what the monster was saying, wondering if it could be true. If the boy had special powers that were illegal, she didn't know what she would do if they survived this. It then clicked in her head, that was the secret everyone had tried to hide that day. Tsukasa had used some form of illegal powers to protect everyone from Sora, and everyone had tried to cover it up.

The Wave Master didn't want to use his powers in front of Subaru, but he knew if he didn't then she would die and so would he. He began to form his power into an thunder ball that was more powerful then that of an adult, even three adults working together. Subaru was amazed at the boy's power, but also crushed to know that the teen she had started to like was an illegal and would undoubtedly eventually be found out by someone who would be turned in. She would never turn in someone who had special powers or was mutated, she knew the fear that went along with being different. Criminals were a different story, since they could help themselves, but even they usually have their reasons for what they do.

Tsukasa hoped Subaru could forgive him for what he was doing as he sent his thunder ball at the Shadow Slime, it had the force to knock the monster back through the wall, sending the creature flying down the hall, and disappearing in a huge explosion that shook that entire city of Mac Anu. Both humans believed that the blast had to have killed the creature because nothing could survive something like that, both were proved wrong when a black tentacle shot out of the smoke, hitting Tsukasa and throwing him back three feet. The creature emerged from the smoke apparently unharmed, only smiling at them like they were nothing. Seeing the monster only got the Wave Master angry, and now knowing his normal powers wouldn't work, he decided to summon his Guardian to take care of this creature. He raised his staff and used his summoning powers, but while the Guardian was coming forth, the Shadow Slime raised his arms and began chanting a dark spell, a spell that forced the barbell monster back to where it had come from. The two humans only looked on in surprise and horror as their protector disappeared and both became afraid for their lives.

"Did you think I wouldn't be prepared? I knew of your powers and I knew that I could counter it with an anti-summon spell. Now you can't summon anything to defeat me, and since I let all the monsters into the city, all the knights are out defending the towns people instead of protecting their mistress." The slime's arm began to morph again into a blade, "Now... DIE!!" before shooting it's arm at the two, fearing for their lives. Just before the bladed arm struck, a figure shot out from the shadows and deflected the attack with it's sword. When the two looked at the man in front of them, the both were shocked to see that he had wings growing out of his back.

"Balmung! Is that you?" The Heavy Axe Woman cried in delight. A head of white hair turned to them while smiling.

"How are you today Subaru, its nice to see you have made a new friend."

"Who are you?!" The monster demanded.

"I am Balmung of the Azure Sky, and I will not let you harm someone whom I care for. You two run now, I'll handle this creature."

"But you're not strong enough to defeat a slime monster all by yourself." The Knight mistress argued.

"You'd be surprised by what I can do, now leave before it's too late."

"Subaru, if we don't leave now we may never be able to." Tsukasa says while he pulls on her sleeve trying to make her run.

Subaru only looked back the man fighting to protect them, and began to run out of the building through a hole Tsukasa's blast had made. She said something quietly to herself, not meaning for Tsukasa to hear it but he did anyways, "Be safe big brother."

(In the City)

The monsters kept coming from nowhere, and nobody seemed to be winning against them. The Knight were holding them back, but they didn't seem to be able to drive the creatures out of the city. Anyone and everyone who had training was trying to help, but the towns people who worked in shops and or farmed were rusty in their battle techniques and didn't know what to do when the monsters you faced were in the town. Most Wave Masters couldn't use their attack spells for fear of causing damage to the surrounding buildings or people. There was Chaos everywhere and Bear and Gardenia didn't realize they had been separated from Mimiru, Mireille, and the children until it was too late. The only ones still in their party were Kite and Black Rose, both skilled fighters, but they were still teens. Bear could only think of his daughter, lost somewhere in this mayhem, and Gardenia could only think of her newly appointed charges. The two teens could only think of their friends, both Heavy Blade and Wave Master, lost in this mess.

The group was taking a small breather from their fighting when a Shogan Monster appeared out of nowhere to attack them. Being caught off guard, they couldn't do much to defend themselves from it's attack, but thankfully they didn't have to. Right as the monster was about to strike, new knights seemed to materialize out of nowhere. They were foreign to the teens, but well know by both adults.

The teens were confused because the uniforms of these knights looked nothing like those of the Crimson Knights. Their armor was mainly blue, blue chest plates with "C K" printed in blue covered their leather shirts, leg armor had a bluish tint with a white cloth lined with blue draped from their waist to their knees. They carried axe like spears and wore a smooth, almost bird shaped helmet with eye slits tinted blue. After staring at them for a few seconds, Black Rose finally realized who these people might be.

"Are they the..."

"Yes," a voice from behind them stated. "We are the Cerulean Knights."

They turned around to find a young woman in her late 20's speaking to them, her natural gray hair, red gown, and blue and red breast plate were very familiar to Bear.

"I haven't seen you in a long time Kamui."

"Kamui?" Kite asks.

"She is the leader of the Cerulean Knights," Gardenia explains. "They have jurisdiction over the two cities Fort Ouph and Lia Fail." Seeing the twin blade's blank expression she continued. "The Crimson Knights only look over three of the five towns and the fields that accompany them. Such an organization large enough to monitor all cities is impossible to create, so they simply made two separate organizations to look over all the towns."

"We were called here to help with this incident. Crim and I are both in an agreement that these monsters could not have gotten into this city on their own. The defenses couldn't have been breached by this many monsters undetected."

"Yes, I did say that." Crim ran up to their group to talk with the Cerulean Knight leader. Black Rose could easily feel the tension between the two, and knew that they didn't meet with each other unless necessary.

"How do you know her Bear?" Kite asked.

"She was also one of my students when I taught in Lia Fail. She was in the same class as Crim." He was about to go on when their was an explosion large enough to shake the city.

Kamui was the first to speak. "That felt like it came from..."

"The Head Quarters." Crim answered. "Subaru! Tuskasa!"

Everyone their besides Kamui became fearful for both teens, and ran off to the HQ, but were stopped by monsters.

Crim tried to get through the creatures stopping him, but found that he couldn't and would have to fight them instead. "Damn it..."

(Elsewhere)

Mireille, Mimiru, Ryoko, and A-20 all rested down an alley, after being separated from Reki, Hotaru. The children had gotten fearful from the sudden monster attacks and had run off in a group. The two teens were the only ones who had seen them running off and had forgotten to tell the others before they left to help them. Both now deeply regretted their hasty actions since they were now lost and had lost Reki and Hotaru when their group had been attacked by a Mimic. The children were tired and scared for their lives, something they had never really had to deal with before. Tsukasa had always been their to protect them, but the only ones they had now were two strange girl they had met today and didn't even really know. And they had lost Reki and their new friend Hotaru, nothing seemed to be ok.

As they rested, a Golem Monster rounded the corner of the alley and began walking toward them to attack. Mireille knew that the children were too tired from running to do anything else but sit, so she summoned a barrier and waited for the monster to come. As the Golem got up to the barrier, it started pounding hard on it with it's fists, trying to break through. The children started to cry uncontrollably, and while Mimiru tried to quite them, the Wave Master wondered how long she could keep up the barrier before it broke through. She didn't have to find out though because help arrived long before the barrier began to give. A young Twin Blade jumped down from the building above the monster and landed on it's back. It barely seemed to notice but it was soon dead as the man called out, "Instant Death" making his blades turn purple as he slashed the monster only two times until it fell without an ounce of life left in it.

The man jumped off the monster as it's body began to disappear, when Mimiru caught sight of his green hair and black cloths, she became more afraid then when the monster was attacking. A Golem they could beat, Sora was another case all together. She was completely caught off guard when Mireille let down her shield, shouting greetings and thanks to the outlaw. 'She knows Sora' was the only thing that went through her head as she sat their in fear and confusion.

Mireille was happy to see Sora since she had known him for a while, but was soon stopped when she saw a dangerous glint in his eyes. Sora only ever got this way when something or someone he love was in danger; The young Wave Master knew this and knew why he had helped them but was not pleases.

"Mireille, where is Hotaru? You said before that you had her with you, so where is she?"

"What do you want with an innocent girl you thief?" Mimiru shouted without really thinking of who she was talking to.

"She's my daughter you stupid little brat!" This caused the Heavy Blade to open her mouth in surprise and was stunned to learn of this new development.

"I'm sorry Sora, but we got separated from her when a monster attacked a while ago."

"YOU WHAT!!"

"She had Ouka with her, so I'm sure she'll be alright."

Mimiru was finally able to regain her voice enough to ask, "What can a dog do for her?"

"She isn't a dog," the treasure hunter explained. "But a werewolf. A mutant with the ability to become a wolf."

"I don't know if she'll be safe," the outlaw explained. "The Cerulean Knights are in town, and that doesn't bout will for us."

A-20's tiny voice was the next to speak up, "Who are the Cerulean Knights?"

The treasure hunter is the one to answer her question. "They are the knights who patrol Fort Ouph and Lia Fail. They are strong warriors, but merciless towards mutants and people with illegal powers. They kill them on site and don't even given them the slightest of chances. Criminals that they capture are given a trial, but it is never fair and they are always sentenced to immediate death. Minor crimes cause people to be sent to prison for two weeks. The city streets are safe, but everyone lives in complete fear of being caught for a crime they didn't even realize they were doing and be sent to jail, even the children."

"If those Knights find out that Ouka is a werewolf and Hotaru has illegal powers, then they will be killed on sight without a second thought." The thief's words left the children and Mimiru worried for both their friends, for if those Knights really were that ruthless, then they may also kill Reki if he tries to protect Hotaru. Sora Flash Mailed Ouka, but discovered that she didn't know exactly know where they were. He only frowned and told the dog to meet him at the clock tower, then told the others where they were heading. The 5 minutes after the group headed out to meet with their friends, the ground shook from a huge explosion. Nobody in the group took mind at the moment, because they didn't know where the blast had come from and knew that the children needed their help more then anyone.

(Reki)

How long they had been running, they didn't know. All they knew was that being separated from their friends was one of the scariest things in the world. Reki had taken Hotaru and Ouka to a safe place that was indicated on Tsukasa's map, and it proved to be very safe. Only one small entrance was available to safe place, and most of the monsters were too small to enter. Those that were small enough were easy prey for the two Wave Master and the werewolf. The boy had been surprised when he first witnessed Ouka morph in front of him, but she had done it to protect both of the children, so he knew the woman would not hurt him.

After they had gotten into the hole, Reki had begun to think about everything that had happened in the last half hour. He had been attacked by dozens of monsters, gotten separated by all his friends, found the girl he had grown to like have illegal powers, and her dog to be a mutant. He didn't really know how to react to knowing he may never see Hotaru again.

Hotaru was having unnerving thoughts as well. She hadn't meant to reveal her powers to Reki nor show him Ouka's true powers, but she hadn't had a choice if they wanted to stay alive. Now if she was discovered, she would lose her life, but what worried her more was thinking that Reki might reject her now that he knew the horrible truth. She didn't know how to act, but she knew she couldn't just sit there not knowing what Reki would do.

"So what happens now?"

"I don't know, I guess we should find a way to get you out of the city."

"What do you mean?"

"I don't want anything to happen to you Hotaru. If you don't get out of the city, then you could be found out." Hotaru just stood there wondering how he could be so grown up at a time like this. "Can you tell me one thing? Will I ever see you again?"

"You'd really want to see me even after you know about my powers?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

Hotaru stood stunned by Reki's words for only a moment, but soon threw herself on the body while she broke down crying. Her tears of joy flowed freely until she was finally able to calm down enough to stop. Once her tear's ceased, she looked up into the boy's eyes and both stayed transfixed in each other for a few minutes until both Wave Masters began moving their heads closer intending to give the other their first kiss. Sadly, they were cut short when Ouka, in her dog form, tackled the boy. Hotaru, stood shocked by her friends actions and demanded to know why she had done that.

"Because Sora won't be happy to know you almost locked lips with someone when he sees you." said the mutant, still in her wolf form.

"Papa's here?" the girl asked shocked.

"Yes. He wants to meet you at the base of the clock tower, from there it'll just be a short distance to the Chaos Gate. We'd better start moving."

When the cost looked clear, they left their hiding place to head to the tower. It was only a 5 minute run there, but everyone knew it would take much longer with the monsters around. They had only walked for a minute before two Sorcerer Monster rounded a corner to meet them. Once Ouka saw the duo, she charged at them, but found that she had been paralyzed by the spell of one of them. Before either could react, Hotaru sent a fire ball at one of them killing it instantly. Unfortunately for the group, she left herself open to be cursed as well. This curse being one on of silence, stopping her from casting any of her spells. The Sorcerer tried to attack them after both of their main fighters were incapacitated, but didn't take Reki into account. Though he didn't have any illegal powers, he did know a special shield spell Tsukasa had taught him. Normally the blast would have broken through the spell, but the charm he had bought doubled his defensive magic, causing the special reflection spell to send the monster's attack right back at it. The spell exhausted the boy, but it destroyed the monster; to everyone's dismay, the spells on the two females remained.

This would have meant death for the party, had not there been a pair of eyes watching their back, for an Shogun monster had approached while their backs were turned and had tried to attack Reki without the boy knowing about it. He only looked around when Hotaru looked back first and jumped away from something. When he looked back, he found a huge sword only a few feet away from him, the monster frozen by an unseen force. The sword flew out of the monster's hand and stabbed itself. After that, the monster's body disappeared and a strange cat-like creature appeared out of nowhere. It only smiled at the group and waved its hand, causing the two girls to become jinx free and Hotaru shouted in complete joy.

"Macha! Macha!! I can't believe your here."

Reki didn't hear any sound come out of the cat's mouth, but he heard someone speak directly into his mind. 'It's nice to see you too Hotaru, looks like you've gotten yourself into a little bit of trouble.'

The boy was bewildered and asked Ouka what was happening.

"She is a Psychic master. She is an expert in teleportation, telekinesis, and telepathy."

He was about to ask further details, when the ground shook with a blast, causing everyone to realize that they had wasted enough time and needed get to the tower in a hurry.

-----------------------(TBC)------------------

Muahahahaha, I am evil for I cause everything bad/ strange to happen to everyone. I'm also weird for making Balmung and Subaru brother and sister, but I thought it would be a good plot twist and would make sence because they both have the special wings in the show. I don't like Kamui that much in the show or the manga, but I just felt like I had to put her in there at least to become some sort of bad guy later on.

Also, I am sorry for being so late with this, but I had a major school project due on Friday, and needed to work on it all week. Then I had to work during the weekend, so there's my reasoning/ excuses.

**Blackheart Syaoran**- Hurray! Hurray! I can actually make a good story. (Huggles BH Syaoran)

**Dragon-O-Darness-** YATTA!!! I'm getting better and better and only making a few small mistakes. I would do the thing with printing out my story and reviewing it, but I have this thing against wasting paper like that, so sorry.

**Vampwriter**- I don't know if Mireille is really a lesbian, but this is my story and I can make the people do what I want.

_ Tsukasa_- You can't force me to do something!

_ Me-_ Wana bet? (Begins typing) Tsukasa does a hand stand.

_ Tsukasa_- (does a hand stand) HEY! don't do that!

_ Me-_ Hehehe (typing) Tsukasa trips over his feet

_ Tsukasa_- (trips) Oww

_ Kite-_ I'll help you my friend.

_ Me_- Really? Do you want me to force you two to have a make-out session?

_ Kite_- ... Later doomed stranger. (walks away)

_ Tsukasa_- Some friend you are!!


	10. Fesival Dragon

**Disclaimer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes: **Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru, Elk-around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia, Kamui, Balmung- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's

Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8

Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

" 'What is it?' 'A great force, the power it holds can bring forth either salvation, or, destruction... at the whim of the user.' "

.hackInfection quote Orca and Aura

**DotHack: Reality ch. 10**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

(Crim)

They had been fighting for ten minutes to reach the Crimson Knights HQ, and were almost there. Nobody knew, but the monsters continually slowing them were deliberately stalling them, as ordered by the Shadow Slime. Though the monsters were not smart enough to speak, they instinctively knew to obey the other monster, and knew how to do what it asked. An unknown force guided their actions, a force thought to have been destroyed years ago.

The humans knew none of this though, all of Crim's party, Bear, Gardenia, Kite, Black Rose, Kamui, and Silver Knight, only tried to reach their destination to help Tsukasa and Subaru. Both Crim and Silver Knight were horrified by what they found when they reached their base, the front entrance in ruins and a huge fire spreading was almost enough to crush their spirits. The site of multiple Wave Masters trying to put out the fire gave some heart, but the knowledge that their home was destroyed still stung at them. A patrol of Wave Master Knights ran up to their leaders with news.

"Sir, we have captured a mutant outlaw who may have been involved with the destruction of our base."

"Good" replies Silver Knight. "Who is it and what happened?"

"When we arrived to put out the fire, we found the outlaw Balmung fighting with a monster of an unknown type. We tried to subdue both the monster and the outlaw, but the creature seemed to be made out of some sort of slime and was able to escape us through the rocks. The winged human tried to give chase, but we were able to detain him."

Kamui was the next to speak up; addressing the Wave Master whom was giving the report. "Don't you dare call a mutant creature human you spineless coward. They are nothing more then disgusting anomalies that we are sworn to exterminate. Our leaders have spoken extensively about this." The anger in her voice was undeniable to everyone around her. "If I hear you talking of those creatures as humans again you will be made an example of."

Crim then steps in between the Wave Master and Kamui with a dangerous look in his eye. "You forget your place Cerulean Leader. You have no authority to order my troops around or to punish them in any way. The ability to had out orders and to give punishments are only available to Silver Knight and myself. Just like we can not command your knights or punish them. Now Elk, why don't you take me to your captured person." (**A/N**: I wasn't planning on adding Elk, but now that he's in here, he's just a minor character who you may never see again. I don't have this planned out.)

Kite could easily see why neither Crim nor Silver Knight looked at Kamui with kindness or pleasure. The way she over steps her authority and hated mutants would cause any kind hearted person to instantly dislike her. Kite himself had no problems with any mutants, not that he had ever met one, but whenever he heard about a captured mutant, they never told about anything he or she had done to deserve capture. Never was there a crime stated, just information about the capture. It was another law created by the Administrators, which made no sense to anyone. Only the completely blind and devoted people like Kamui had no problem with any of the rules, and she didn't tolerate others talking down to her.

"Like I said before it is a thing, not a person Crim. I have no problem with reporting your negligence to the Admin. and forcing you to step down from your position."

"You're just as greedy and backstabbing as ever Kamui. Always looking for even the smallest flaw to get rid of a rival and get what you want. I will state again that you have no jurisdiction here, and if I find that any of your troops have harmed or killed any one for any reason, you will be the one without your knights. You agreed to come and **help** us, not take over spread your "justice" here. The objective is to find the one who let the monsters into the city and detain them for questioning. If I find any sign of murder by your knights, there will be hell to pay. Let's go now Elk. Kite, Black Rose, stay with Bear, Silver Knight, and Gardenia."

The Crimson Wave Master only smiled at his leader as he led the way where Balmung was. Everyone present, even Silver Knight, was giving smiles to the Red Thunder as he walked off. Everyone appreciating the way he handled Kamui and putting her in her place. The Cerulean leader only gave Crim a death glare before returning to the city to help the troops.

Crim meanwhile looked down at the winged human in chains. He wondered how many people he knew in the past would turn out to be criminals or illegals. Sora, Balmung, and Orca, all some of his closest friends in school and as he grew up all turned into criminals or, as in Balmung's case, were reviled to be a mutant. Crim actually pitied Kamui, since she had grown up with basically no friends. She had grown up on the belief that the Admin and the rules knew everything and could never do wrong. She couldn't understand that mutants were just as human as anyone else was, except they couldn't help the way they were born. Even some criminals were just victims of circumstances and only did what they could to survive.

"How are you my old friend?"

"Being held captive isn't what I would call good or fun, but I guess I'm fine."

"You know that I can't release you, especially with Kamui here."

"Yes, and I wouldn't ask you to risk your position either. You and Subaru are some of the only people to let mutants try to live their lives. You don't know how many in Net Slum owe their lives to you."

"Balmung, what were you fighting, what destroyed the building, and what happened to Subaru?"

"To answer your first question, it was some sort of strange black slime monster called a Shadow Slime."

"If it is unheard of, then how do you know its name?"

"Because that is what it told Subaru and Tsukasa." This caused Crim's eyes to widen in shock as Balmung continued. "It could talk, and even said that it let the monsters into the city. My guess is that it is what keeps letting monsters appear in the city as well.

"For the second question, Tsukasa was the one to blow apart the building."

Crim had a hard time swallowing that answer. "Impossible, that blast shook the entire city. If he could do that then he'd have to be..."

"Yes, the boy is an illegal. He has more power then three adult Wave Masters working together. If he was trying to kill the Shadow Slime in order to protect Subaru."

"A blast that powerful didn't work?"

"Slime monsters are extremely powerful creatures. Normal attacks and magic do not effect them. Tsukasa seems to be able to summon a slime monster himself. That is how he was able to fend off Sora when their group was attacked a few days ago."

'Now things are starting to add up' thought Crim.

"For your third question, I don't know. Both Subaru and the boy ran after I showed up to fend off the monster. Why was that boy alone with my sister anyways Crim?"

"...Um (sweat drop) They just became really fast friends."

"How close of friends?"

"Well..." Crim was half expecting Balmung to start asking questions about his little sister. He had always been over protective of her in personal matters, even though they were half siblings and she was ten years younger then he. "I don't really know how close they are, but lets focus on finding them first so you can ask them later. Do you have any clue where they could have gone?"

Balmung only shook his head while sighing, making the knight leader wonder if they were going to find them in time. Just as this thought crossed his mind, Crim began to feel something. It was nothing like he had ever felt before, but it was powerful and... the only word he could find to describe it was "bright." Only Wave Masters ever felt any powers and aura's like this, but Crim, a simple blade wielder, was able to feel it clearly.

Though the Long Arm didn't realize it, every person in the city was feeling the exact same thing. Blade users were simply awed by the new force, while the normally sensitive Wave Masters were overwhelmed by it, causing them to become completely lost in this unknown power. Crim rushed outside leaving Balmung behind without a thought, the Red Lightning somehow knew that when he reached where the power was emanating from, he would find both Tsukasa and Subaru.

(Kite and Black Rose)

Crim had just gone into see the prisoner when Silver Knight got an urgent message about criminals who had just been captured near the Central Clock. After ordering the teens to stay with the adults, he left to investigate. Things had gotten rather boring for Kite and Black Rose, seeing as how they had nothing to do, nowhere to go, and no way to find their missing friends. They were contemplating sneaking off to go look when they felt the power. The feeling of an aura was unknown to either, while the strange Wave Master Elk, near them, fell to the ground; tears of joy spilling from his eyes as he felt things he had never felt before in his life.

They were both lost in the feeling until Crim ran by them. Suddenly, both teens knew exactly what Crim had realized, that their friends could be found at the source. The two ran off with Bear and Gardenia close behind, somehow knowing where the energy was coming from, the central gate area near the Clock Tower.

While running, only Bear noticed that their path was clear of any monsters. He realized that there had been fighting up until the power began. The monsters which were coming in droves had stopped their advance and where no longer appearing, as if the power which had just started emanating had stopped the invisible holes the monsters had been crawling in from.

While they were about three blocks away from their destination, a pillar of light suddenly shot up into the sky, shining light onto the entire city. Nobody could describe its beauty, but everyone could tell it was a summoning spell at its core, and the entire city knew that the creature that had been summoned was far more powerful then anything summoned before.

When the teens rounded the corner, they met a sight unlike any they had seen before, two monsters of great power that not even Crim had expected. One was a creature any human could tell was dark, but didn't hold the description Balmung had given Crim. It was a strange creature, which seemed to be made of crystal, Ying Yang symbols where on it's arms and chest, instead of eyes and a mouth, and it had three crystals on its face. A circle on top of it's head gave it even more of an odd look, while the red staff with a circle at the staff's top gave a huge contrast to the monster's white body.

The second creature was a being of glowing rainbow light, but the dragon shape of it was undeniable. It was as big as a house, and radiated pure power. The creature had no definite shape, no real body except the beautiful glowing light, radiating multiple colors as the light frayed at the dragon's edges.

Nobody was surprised to see two figures on the ground beneath the rainbow dragon; Subaru, who was lying on the ground looking up in aw at Tsukasa, who was standing tall with power radiating off him. Power which took the form of the same rainbow glowing light which the dragon was made up of.

As everyone watched on, the dragon turned its head slightly until it was looking directly at Kite and his small group. As the dragon stared down on the group, Kite felt like he was the creatures center of attention, and suddenly felt a strange power shoot up his left arm, making it feel aflame. His wrist was suddenly engulfed in a bright light, and after the light died down, he found he was wearing a strange bracelet made up of translucent polygons.

(Reki)

They were almost to the clock tower, and that was where the boy finally got his first look of the legendary thief called Sora. He was standing tall and proud, but had some sort of evil glint in his eye, a dangerous look that made him seem like some sort of criminal. Hotaru had been telling him about her father, and how much he loved her. He'd learned about how the thief had taken the girl in, about how he was really a kind person who just needed to be a villain to fight off the Administrators. She told him about the very first time he had betrayed his friend Crim, and how he'd been depressed for days afterwards.

Reki knew Hotaru wouldn't lie about her father, but this man didn't seem kind at all. 'Something is wrong' the boy thought. 'Macha was being strange as well, she flew away about half way here.'

"Where is everyone?" The boy asked.

"I have them locked up inside. They'll be released once I get you two brats."

Reki was slightly hurt by this, but found that Hotaru was unaffected. He knew then that something was very wrong if her own father treating her like this didn't hurt her. Just then, troops from the Cerulean and Crimson Knight groups swarmed around the tower area with weapons drawn. One woman was dressed differently then the others stood out and announced, "I Kamui of the Cerulean knights place you, Sora, under arrest for terrorizing citizens and the attempted abduction of these children. And you, mutant, will be arrested for working with this criminal and for being a mutant."

Reki looked around in confusion until Hotaru finally whispered to him, "We were being followed by those knights since around halfway to here. Play along with this fake hostage thing and we'll probably survive."

"Sorry to disappoint you Miss. Kamui, but I will have the two little children I came for. You can't stop me or my little friends."

"We have you out numbered and out manned, both you and your little wolf friend."

"I wasn't just talking about the wolf you fool." Sora then snapped his fingers and suddenly Macha appeared out of no where in front of the children. As he grabbed a hold of Reki and Hotaru's arms both children started to struggle as if this wasn't what they wanted. This made it a little more difficult for Macha to teleport them all to safety, but he had plenty of time; Ouka was doing a wonderful job of protecting the three people, as three were pulled off the ground and teleported out of the city to Net Slums.

As Macha teleported, Sora was swamped with more knights then even he could possible handle. Ouka had already turned into her wolf form and was running through the knights to get to the Chaos Gate. Macha was special because he could teleport even in the city, which was something not even Tsukasa could do. The Wave Master could only teleport from field while in a field, to any city despite restrictions, and to restricted areas, but he still needed a Chaos Gate to accomplish those.

Sora had half expected to get caught finally, especially with Kamui in the picture. He didn't expect to get caught within the first few minutes of the fight though. He had been doing good until someone was finally able to grab him from behind, while another tackled his legs from the front, causing him to fall with a 'thud.' The only consolation he could see was the fact that he had been captured by the Crimson Knights who would only imprison him, and not the Cerulean Knights who would undoubtedly kill him on the spot, though not for a lack of trying.

"So how do you want to die Sora, slow or fast?" Kamui stated with amusement in her voice.

"You shall not kill anyone Knight Leader." One of his nameless captors said. "We are taking him in for questioning, then to be put under judgment of the Administrators."

"How dare you, you worthless little nobody. I am your leader and you shall do what I say."

"You forget your place," the same knight said. "Crim, Subaru, and Silver Knight are our leaders. You have no right to order us around and kill captives."

"You were just told that a little while ago Kamui." Silver Knight says as he walks over to the female leader. "Isn't that right? You were just told that if you try to kill _any_ captured human or mutant that you would suffer."

Kamui is now angry and talking through clenched teeth. "Silver Knight..."

"My troops and I will take this low life (points to Sora) to the dungeon. You will check on the hostages inside the building."

As Silver Knight began to leave, the strange power began to arise. Since they were much closer to the source, the Knights near the clock were even more deeply impacted then those at the base. Everyone there was lost in the power, even Kamui and Sora, as well as those locked up in the Clock Tower as well. Only a few people were snapped out of their trance when the huge pillar of light erupted. Kamui, finally freed, began to race to the site of the power, which wasn't too far, and was met with the proof she needed to convict Tsukasa of his illegal powers; the sight of him summoning a dragon, a feat which would normally take five adult Wave Masters to accomplish.

------------------(TBC)----------------

**A/N:** I just have one more piece to go before I get done with this whole festival mini-series. I don't know how to explain a dragon made up of rainbow lights either, I hope I did a good job with that. And Skeith is finally here; just to let you know, I'll only do three or four phase monsters in this story. Reasons, 1) Some are just stupid and weird, (Gorre, Magus, Travos) one doesn't work while I have cat Macha in play (Macha) 2) If I did try anduse all 8, it wouldmake this fic way too long.

What happened to Shadow Slime you ask, that will be revealed in the next chapter.


	11. Festival Capture

**Disclaimer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters. Except for my Grunty Plushy, HE IS MINE!!

**Notes: **Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru, Elk-around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia, Kamui, Balmung- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's

Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8

Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

" 'Too bad for you old lady, but I've betrayed you now too.' 'How thoughtless, fool.' 'The way you behave it's really suspicious, besides, I don't wana be friends with you anyways.' 'I see.' 'Yah, so anyways, see you around.' 'You'll learn that I don't take betrayal lightly Sora. I will now teach you that there's something far worse then death. (data drain and Skeith appears) Skeith, you will go after Aura.' "

.hacksign quote. Sora and Morgona (episode 25)

**DotHack: Reality ch. 11**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

(Flash back)

'He's gona catch me, He's gona catch me.' That was all a small boy could do as he ran down the streets during a dark night in Dun Loireag. The scene he had just witnessed was only one of many, but his father still terrified him none the less. Nobody was on the streets at that hour, and that was all important to the child because he couldn't stand the shame of people knowing that he was so weak. He hated his father, but some things always stick with a person, like morals passed down from father to son; morals like being strong, never showing tears, killing emotions. Manipulative morals which kept secrets that Tomo-yuki never wanted told in public.

The images kept playing in the boy's head, the hate in his father's eyes, all caused because he had a Wave Master for a son and not a Blade Master like he hoped for. The physical pain caused by the beating he had gotten from his father, the emotional pain from seeing his mother beaten once again for trying to protect him. The shame for knowing that he couldn't do anything to stop the chaos in his life. The only thing Tsukasa could do was run down the street, knowing that he would have to return to his house and face his father before people showed up to see his sorry state.

(Present)

Once again Tsukasa was running because of complete fear for himself. Once again he couldn't protect himself from a dangerous monster out to get him. The only thing that was different was that he was able to take someone he cared for with him. The Wave Master hated to feel this helpless because it reminded him too much of his past, and his past hurt more then anything in his entire life. He had been trying to forget it since his father died, but that helpless feeling kept jumping back at him; BT and her assignments, Sora, and now this new monster.

Subaru was wise enough to tell that Tsukasa was terrified of this strange creature, and that the main reason why he ran wasn't just to save her, but out of that fear. She had been afraid at the beginning of their sprint to safety, but that was well over three minutes ago and she was tiring rapidly. Subaru didn't fight often enough to keep in good shape, unlike Tsukasa who ran constantly as a child, and kept up his running from all the field adventures he had. Eventually, Subaru, in her weary state, finally tripped over her own feet and fell hard. That was the only thing that snapped Tsukasa out of his terror-filled run, Subaru's scream as she fell, injuring her ankle and her arm. The boy ran over to Subaru to see if she was all right.

"What's wrong Subaru?"

"My ankle hurts. I think I might have twisted it. And the shoulder I landed on hurts as well."

"Let me help." The Wave Master took off Subaru's shoe and inspected her ankle. He eventually finding exactly where it hurt and casted a healing spell to make fix the problem. He decided to take a look at her shoulder as well, but couldn't do so with her cloths whole. Before she had a chance to protest, Tsukasa ripped apart the shoulder of her cloths, and accidentally ripped down the back of her shirt, brining one of Subaru's most carefully kept secrets into view; two wings protruding from her back, marking one of the leaders of the Crimson Knights a mutant.

"Subaru, your a... a...,"

"Yes, I'm a mutant."

"You really are Balmung's sister then?"

"You heard me then? Yes, Balmung is my older brother, and like him, I have wings as well."

"How could you be a mutant and still be a Knight leader? You kill how many other mutants each year?" Tsukasa couldn't believe that someone who had to hide all their life could kill others for something they couldn't help. He had to hid his true self for his entire life because of people who would kill him. "How could you be a mutant and still do such terrible things?"

"Because I don't do anything like that."

"What?"

"I have never kill a mutant as long as I have been a Knight leader. When ever an execution is held, a small group of trusted knights go with me and stage a fake death. People are not allowed to witness a death because nobody is really killed. My brother or an associate of his usually meet us out it the field and take the captives with him to a safe place. I would never kill another mutant, never in my life."

Relief flowed through Tsukasa like hot water, but something bugged him. "How did you become a knight leader then? Wouldn't anyone know you could be a mutant if your relatives were mutants as well?"

"Yes, but only a select few know that Balmung is my brother. We are half siblings, born of the same father. Balmung's mother died in childbirth, so his father hired a few maids to help take care of the house and raise my brother. When he was around ten, his father slept with one of the maids, and I was born about a year later. Nobody knew that the maid was pregnant with her master's child, the only other people who knew where Balmung and his friends Crim, Orca, and Sora.

"Because Balmung took after his father, and I took after my mother, nobody guessed us for siblings; everyone just thought of me as the daughter of a maid there, but my brother knew the truth and treated me with great kindness and love."

Tsukasa had a hard time taking in so much personal history at once, but he was able to keep up so far. "Then what happened to your household and why aren't you with your brother now?"

Subaru looked pained from answering the question, but she did so anyways. In truth, she had kept everything bottled inside her for so long, not even discussing it with Crim, that she felt a great relief from finally telling what had happened at the ceremony. "Our house hold was destroyed on the day of the Fiona Festival. Balmung had become one of the best warriors of the entire land, as well as Orca, and had received the coveted title of Descendant of Fiona. Father couldn't have been happier since it was only an honor that could be won by defeating the previous title holder. During one of the skills bouts he had with Orca, big brother's friend made a mistake and accidentally shredded Balmung's cloths. Everyone there saw he was a mutant and that was the end of everything for our house.

"Since mutation is passed on through genetics, it meant father was killed as well. The only reason I escaped was because I had been kept out of the public's eye and nobody knew who I was. Mother was killed on the streets one day, and I was eventually discovered by Crim. He took care of me and even helped get me my position." Subaru then grabbed Tsukasa's hand and looked at him with the most clear and sincere eyes he had ever seen. "Please believe my Tsukasa, when I tell you that I had nothing to do with any deaths during my time as a knight leader. When ever I could, I saved as many lives as I could and did what ever I could to save guard Mutants and Illegals."

The Wave Master could not help but believe Subaru, she seemed to just radiate truth and love. He cupped the woman's face with his and was about to speak when someone broke in on their conversation. "How nice to see the two love birds again." A slime tentacle shot out at them, but was dodge when Tsukasa threw himself and the winged girl on the ground. The slime monster stepped out of the shadows with his dark smile still in place. "Now that you're lost in the city, you'll be easy to kill."

"What did you do with Balmung?!" Shouted the worried Knight Leader.

"I didn't do anything, your Wave Master Knights captured him for me. With Kamui here, his death is assured, as are yours. Now that I know what you are, I could just turn you into the Administrators and let them deal with you, but I prefer to deal with you both my self."

"I'll never let you hurt Subaru!"

"You won't be able to stop me boy. As powerful as you are, you don't have the abilities to defeat a slime monster." Shadow Slime then shot a tentacle out at Tsukasa, but he was able to roll out of the way in time to dodge, leaving Subaru alone while he distracted the monster.

Try as he might, all Tsukasa could really do was dodge and block attacks. The monster was able to recover after every attack he through at him, and was still immune to any power downs he knew. The fighting was tiring Tsukasa out, but he was still able to evade well, that is until the fight turned into a hostage situation. Subaru ran to attack the monster as it's back was turned, but even her ax could do no damage. She also couldn't get away in time to avoid being captured by the Shadow Slime, and found her self being hung by her neck in the arm of the Slime monster.

"You shouldn't have interfered girl, now you die first." The monster raised a bladed hand to bring about Subaru's death, but that was the moment when Tsukasa first released his inner power. Seeing Subaru near her death had brought out a need that Tsukasa had never really felt before. He had never cared too much about his own life or for the lives of other with a few exceptions, but this was completely different. He had never seen someone he cared for ever within death's reach before; always he could do something to help or some way to stop the deadly strike, but here he was powerless. He couldn't attack the monster without risking Subaru in the process, and his abilities were useless against the Shadow Slime. In desperation, Tsukasa had looked deep within himself, and had found a power he had never even know existed with in himself. After he first touched that power, he lost himself to the power while something else rose to take control of his body.

Neither Subaru nor the Shadow Slime observed Tsukasa's inner turmoil, but both felt when he released his power and lost himself to it. They were able to see his power surround him in an aura of rainbow colors, all swirling around him and completing him. Subaru, like most humans, was overwhelmed by a sense of peaceful resolution. Everything seemed peaceful, like nothing in the entire world could go wrong in the world she lived in. The monster's reaction was one of pure terror and disgust. The power he sensed was completely the opposite of himself, and he could feel that his was a force that he could not face. He dropped the girl and tried to run, but one look from Tsukasa had a paralyzing affect on the monster and he found that he could not move. Never had the creature felt this powerless, and it didn't like it at all.

The only thing it could do was send a slime blade at the boy, but as soon as the blade reached the rainbow aura surrounding the boy, it shattered and the pieces disintegrated into nothing. When the Shadow Slime's arm shattered, it felt pain, something the monster had never felt before in it's entire life. Always, being broken apart had been painless, but now, the pain was real and unbearable to the monster.

"How? How could a boy do this to me?" The question was meant to be rhetorical, but an unknown voice answered him. An echoing voice of a woman that only he could hear; a voice that the Shadow Slime called his master.

"Because you allowed it."

"What?"

"If you had just finished off Tsukasa first before attacking Subaru, none of this would have happened. I told you in the beginning didn't I, 'Kill the Wave Master first, then anyone else you desire.' "

"I didn't think he could do this!"

"You never think you little fool, and now you will pay the price. I was prepared for this. Now that the Cerulean Knights are here, Tsukasa will be found out and killed for his powers, even if they are one of the keys to stopping me. You will make an exhalent sacrifice to **my** greater good."

Subaru couldn't understand why the monster was talking to itself, and by the looks of things, Tsukasa didn't even care. He simply raise his hands and focused his light into a ball to send out and destroy the monster that had caused him so much pain. Upon seeing this the monster began shrieking out to be saved, that he would do anything to be saved.

"Anything?" The voice said. "I can arrange that. I'd rather take care of this threat and not leave it to those incompetent Administrators."

"YES! PLEASE GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE!"

As Tsukasa sent his light ball at the monster, a strange staff appeared in front of the monster and blocked the Wave Master's attack. The Shadow Slime saw this as a blessing until the staff disappeared, and reappeared behind him, freezing him with some unknown force.

"What is this?!"

"You're chance to finally be of use to me. You do not have the ability to defeat the Power of the Twilight the boy holds, so you will be sacrificed so I can break the seal on something that can."

"NO YOU CAN'T..." A screech followed that caused Subaru to cringe. She had been afraid that the monster had gained some power that protected it from Tsukasa, but had found she was wrong when the staff began to drain, as she could only describe as, the life and soul out of the monster. The Ax Woman ran beside Tsukasa for protection while the Shadow Slime began to fade out of existence, and something else began to form in it's place. A monster that seemed to be made of crystal, and had Ying Yang symbols painted all over it's body. It grabbed the staff that appeared and began to float by itself over the ground, radiating a strange force.

Tsukasa raised his arm and sent a light ball at the strange creature, but unlike the Shadow Slime, it was completely unaffected by the blast. Monster raised it's staff and began to summon a dark power to throw at the duo, but just when it was about to launch it's attack the aura around Tsukasa suddenly expanded, freezing the monster for a few moments, enough time for Tsukasa to speak a short phrase. "Return oh divine creature. Force of dawn and dusk, creature of legend. Descend to us and defend against this evil."

Subaru had been glad of Tsukasa's powers, they had been calming so far, but hearing his voice had shocked her out of the calming trance and showed her what had happened. Tsukasa himself had become lost to his power as well and something else was controlling him. Never had she herd such a lifeless voice as Tsukasa, it sent chills down her spine, even more then the Shadow Slime had. The monster at least had some form of feelings, even if it was just hate and evil; Tsukasa now seemed empty and lifeless, and seeing a human like that was never a good sign.

After the Wave Master spoke his short phrase, a column of bright, white light shot up from him, radiating powers unlike any that had been felt before. The pillar lasted for only a few seconds until a ball of rainbow light burst from the column, forming the outline of a dragon with the beautiful light. Subaru was unaware of the fact that Kamui had also witnessed this summons as well, and was now prepared to capture Tsukasa when his dragon protector vanished.

The dragon that had been summoned was not some mindless beast, but one of the most intelligent creatures to ever exist. It knew what the creature it faced was, but knew that it stood no chance against The Terror of Death in it's current form. While the boy who summoned him was powerful, he was not yet strong enough bring forth it's true form. Only when completely summoned, could the dragon hope to defend against a Phase Monster. Until that happened, it could only hold the monster in place until help arrived.

The dragon was amazed when only a few moments after he had been summoned, the help he had hoped for appeared. The young man who had received the Twilight Bracelet rounded the corner and stood transfixed at both Skeith and the dragon. He had not yet found how to activate the Bracelet's powers, but, while the dragon knew it not wise to force this power on the boy, it knew that it was needed to defeat the Phase Monsters. The dragon focused his strength on the child and brought forth the power of Twilight that had been placed there. The dragon felt guilty when the boy yelled out in pain, but soon got over the guilt and said a few words before disappearing from the city.

Kite yelled in pain from the power that was emerging, but found it bearable, and was able to ride it out till the end. He stared in wonder at the bracelet around his wrist until he herd a voice speaking to him; a deep, male voice speaking directly into his mind, 'Use the power of the Bracelet to weaken Skeith. Only you have the power to stop Her army, but not the strength to stop Her. That task belongs to both you and another.' The dragon began to fade, but Kite heard one more thing, 'Till we meet again Bracelet Keeper.'

After the dragon disappeared, the aura around Tsukasa also disappeared and the Wave Master fell to the ground, his powers completely drained. Without the strange aura emitting it's power everyone was broken out of their trance; even Tsukasa returned to himself, but had no idea what had happened after he had summoned a his full powers. He was shocked to find himself lying on the ground with no strength left in him, staring at one of the strangest monsters he had ever seen.

As he was wondering what was going on, Skeith raised his staff to launch another attack, but was intercepted by Crim and Silver Knight. Both new that the strange monster was extremely dangerous and was trying to kill their leader. Each dealt blows that should have been fatal to the creature, but the wounds immediately healed. This left the knights and everyone else in the area wondering how to kill a monster that couldn't be killed. Most of the Knights in the area, both Crimson and Cerulean, rushed to attack the creature but were repelled by the monster's attack.

Kite, Black Rose, Bear, and Gardenia all ran over to where Tsukasa and Subaru were on the ground. The Wave Master had fallen on the ground and was being held up by the Axe Woman, and both were being looked after by Crim. Crim had taken off his jacket and had given it to Subaru, and while everyone simply assumed that her cloths had been torn but nobody knew that the coat was to cover her wings. As they were checking up on the two, two Knights, one Crimson and one Cerulean, had been captured by the strange monster and were being held up by it's staff. Everyone in the square could only watch on as a strange bracelet formed around the wrist of the monster and listen to the Knight's screams as the bracelet expanded and began to drain the souls out of the warriors.

After the drain was complete, the bodies of the two men fell to the ground, neither making any movement and everyone assuming that both had died from the monster's attack. Kite's anger at the monster rose as he saw the two bodies hit the ground, and his bracelet started to pulse with power. Kite was wondering why nobody was staring at the pulsing item around his wrist, but he didn't know that Tsukasa could see the bracelet; he was just more worried about impending doom then his friend's latest accessory. It seemed like nothing could stop the strange monster's powers and everything they could try would fail, but as Skeith once again tried to attack their group, he was interrupted, this time by Kite.

As the monster tried to attack once again, Kite's new item activated on its own, expanding into a new form and launching an attack which broke through Skeith's attack and caught the monster itself, causing the same draining effects that had just been used on the two Knights. Everyone watched on as the Phase Monster began to shrink and became nothing more then a floating pile of rocks.

Kite fell to the ground, weakened from his first use of the Bracelet, and holding a strange black orb in his left hand. As the Phase monster tried to attack again, Bear blocked the monster with a simple blade attack. Everyone was surprised that the monster was repelled, but only Crim saw that the monster had begun have cracks in it's body, cracks that didn't heal after a short amount of time. The Red Thunder launched one of his highest level and most powerful attacks on the monster and hit his target flawlessly. A few seconds after Crim's attack hit, the space around Skeith became distorted, a loud tone was heard, and the monster began to break apart and disintegrate. The distortion and tone lasted only until the body disappeared completely and everyone was silent from what they had just seen.

Tsukasa, Kite, and everyone in the area was relieved that everything was over, but the two male teens soon found themselves at the ends of the Cerulean Knights spears with Kamui standing before them. "I here by capture these two Illegals for their abnormal powers."

---------------------------------------(TBC)---------------------------------

**A/N**: (Gives his readers rocks, clubs, chains and whips.) Go ahead, start beating the S out of me for taking so long on this chapter. I deserve it and will accept my punishment. Not even the X-mas excuse would do for my failure. All I can say is that I have a hard time figuring out/writing battle sequences and got stuck there. I will not beg for forgiveness, so just go ahead with the beatings. Fav. quote for this. "Sticks and Stones may beak my bones, but whips and chains excite me."

I'm also thinking of re-posting this fic, but taking out the whole Member address thing (it has become a huge whole in the plot) and changing the names of people so families actually make sense and people aren't numbers or toys (A-20, Kite)

Since some people can't seem to read (Wind Kaze) I will once again tell you the difference between criticism and constructive criticism. Criticism is when you **just** tell someone that their writings bad. Constructive Criticism is when you tell someone what they are doing wrong and how to fix it. WIND KAZE IS THE KEY PERSON TO WHOM I'M SPEAKING TO AND I MAKE THIS REQUEST, THAT YOU START TO USE CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM.

**Kitedragon:** I know that Tsukasa's parents are unknown and that in the manga, but the great part of a fan fic is that you can do what you want. I also know Mistral is Mireille's mom, but I hadn't read the last book of the manga when I put that part in. And since the characters in this fic are based off the online characters in the game, it seemed the best to make them twins.

**To all others**: Thank you for your support.


	12. Imprisonment

**Disclaimer: **I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

**Notes: **Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru, Elk-around 16 or 17.

Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia, Kamui, Balmung- late 20's

BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's

Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8

Macha? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

**Summary:** An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

**Reviews: **Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

" 'What are you planning to do now?' 'You're the one who determins that,am I right? Besides, I can't exactly get out of here anyways.' 'If you are not so reckless with your behavior, thenwe have no reason to detain you any further.' "  
-Hacksign qutoe: Subaru and Tsukasa (episode 6)-

**DotHack: Reality ch. 12**

By: TsukasaTheFominian

The jail cells of the Crimson Knight HQ were full for the first time in a long time. Their plane brick walls and cold steel bars only hit home the reality that everyone their was sure to die a painful death, and for some of them, just after being let off of a death sentence. The first cell in the row held the mutants Balmung and Ouka. The second cell held the Outlaw Sora. Third contained Wave Master, Tsukasa and his friend Mimiru. Last in the line were the Illegals Kite and Black Rose. The only others currently in the Jail Room were two Crimson Knight guards, placed at the entrance to the room.

Mimiru was sitting on her bed at the verge of tears for the great shame she had befallen her. She tried to continually keep thinking of ways to escape the prison, but her thoughts were continually disturbed by the snoring of her cell mate. Tsukasa had said he was going to try to get some sleep, but Mimiru hadn't actually believed that it would really happen. Mimiru's anger kept building up until she finally slammed her fists on the ground and shouted, "How can anyone sleep at a time like this?"

The question was meant to be rhetorical, but Sora took it upon himself to answer her, "Now's as good a time as any. We can't escape from their cells, and we don't have any weapons with us either. All we can do is wait."

"Tsukasa could think of some magic he could use to get us out of here!" Replied the brown haired girl.

"Except these cells have powerful anti magic spells on them," Countered Ouka. "And there is a barrier set up. Nobody could warp out or use magic here. Not even my fists could break through these bars, so just try to relax and rest up."

Kite was the next to speak, "It's your own fault anyways for trying to stop the Cerulean Knights. You could have just held your tongue, but you talked back and said very insulting things to the Knight Leader. What did you expect after such a display?"

The brown haired Heavy Blade clearly remembered what happened; after Kamui had arrested Kite and Tsukasa, both Mimiru and Black Rose spoke up about their friends not having done anything wrong and how they saved the entire town. Kamui had ignored them until both girls had started throwing insults at her, she then promptly ordered both girl's arrest.

"It just isn't fair that they should throw in jail the two people who saved the entire town form being destroyed by strange monsters." Stated Black Rose.

"Kamui and her group have never been lenient in any way to anybody," stated Balmung. "She's been that way since she was in school and isn't going to change any time soon."

The doors to the dungeon opened and both Subaru and Crim entered, both looking grave. They excused the two guards and both faced the prisoners who had risen to great her. All had gotten up except for Tsukasa who was still asleep. After seeing this, Mimiru took it upon herself to wake her cell mate by shaking him and shouting his name in his ear. When not even those actions succeeded in waking the Wave Master all of the teens in the prison began to worry.

Subaru only said, "Let him sleep. He used too much magic today and has probably over taxed his strength. He fought a strange slime monster, used a completely new type of magic, and summoned that rainbow dragon, he needs his rest.

"I'm sorry to say this, but there doesn't appear to be anything I can do for any of you this time."

"What do you mean Subaru?" her brother asked. "Aren't you going to stage a fake death or just 'forget' to lock our cells?"

Crim could only look down at the floor instead of at his old friends, "Its not like the other times. Not only do we have two of the most wanted criminals in the world here, we also have two teenagers with unknown powers and abilities; one who hypnotized an entire town and summoned an unknown dragon, and one who has the same bracelet that monster used to put two Knights into a coma. When you add the fact that Kamui herself reported all of this directly to the Administrators, it puts us in a major bind."

"What kind of bind?" Kite asked.

The female Knight Leader replied, "The Admin. had ordered you to stand trial before them and if need be, be executed before their eyes."

"If we have to stand trial, doesn't that mean we could be let off?" said the hopeful Mimiru.

"No little girl." Sora answered. "If the Admin. had it their way, we would have been killed the moment we were captured. It's only because the law says **everyone** gets a trial that the Admin. holds mock trials. Our only hope is that Helba finds some way to get us out of this mess and back home."

Trying to postpone the discussion about their trial, Mimiru asked something that had been on her mind, "Subaru, how is everyone else, like Bear, Gardenia, and those orphans?"

"Everyone else is fine, I've talked to Bear and he says that Gardenia has already taken over as the children's care taker and have set about making repairs to the orphanage. Bear is helping them, as well as spending most of his time worrying about what is happening to her daughter. Mireille is also doing fine and if I'm correct, has already returned to the Slums in order to prepare to help you. The only one who was missing was Reki."

"And he is in the Slums with my daughter hopefully helping her with whatever he can." Sora then became slightly gloomy and added. "If anything happens to Hotaru it'll be on that brat's head."

Crim could only laugh at that last remark since it was exactly like the Sora he remembered and had liked to be around during his school days. After his laughter died away, the Knight realized just how much he had missed his old friends, especially his former best friend, Sora. Then he remembered just how he had left their last conversation and why he had joined the knights in the first place.

While the Red Thunder was thinking of his memories, Ouka was defending Reki, whom she had grown to like over the short amount of time she had spent with him. "Don't worry Sora, those kids have Helba behind them, nothing will hurt them, and the boys powers are strong, even if they are not special like Tsukasa's."

"Subaru," Kite interrupted. "Do you know what my bracelet is, or anything about Tsukasa's powers?"

"No, nothing like it has ever been seen before, nobody within the either Knights organizations and, if what I'm lead to believe is true, not even the Administrators have ever seen it."

"Hence the fact that those Admin. guys want both of us killed."

"And why Helba is so interested in meeting you." Sora added.

"Why would Helba want to meet with Kite and Tsukasa?" Black Rose asked.

"According to her," Balmung explained, "A darkness is about to descend upon our world, and your bracelet is one of the keys to stopping that darkness."

"If Helba needs the bracelet, then why did I receive it?"

Sora only glances at the ceiling, "Because that's how it was meant to be."

Ouka could only laugh and correct him. "Liar. You're just lazy." Even though Sora gave her a death glare, she only smiled and continued, "Sora was sent on a mission to receive the item himself, but decided to trick you into doing it for him. We didn't know what the item was that he was ordered to get, all she said was 'Go to the area and retrieve the item for me.' "

"How was I suppose to know that I had to retrieve the item myself?"

"If you had done you job properly, then none of this would have happened."

Subaru was quite amused to listen to the two outlaws argue, but she knew her time was short. "We must be going now, please know that we will do anything we can in order to free all of you."

After both Knight leaders left the room, the two guards both entered into the room again and resumed their watch. Everyone stays quiet until Balmung finally announces, "I'm going to take Tsukasa's lead and have some restful sleep. Please don't wake me."

The others all realized that they are just as tired as Balmung, all decided to rest as well. Everyone was thinking the same thing, 'Tsukasa's got the right idea, peaceful rest will do me some good.' Unfortunately, Tsukasa was having anything but peaceful rest.

His dreams were filled with things that he had never even heard of, wars between monsters and humans, four monsters which lead the lesser, one of those monsters being Skeith. A dark queen and a light king leading the humans, and a single Wave Master using powers that he had never heard of. As suddenly as the multiple images had attacked him, they stopped and he found himself floating within a room of light facing the powerful Wave Master he had had a vision of. The man was looking up at nothing and talking to air.

"Morgana, please, your time as watcher has come to an end at last. The others grew to hate the position you have, why won't you relinquish your power?"

Tsukasa thought the man was insane but then a female's voice came out of no where, "This is the power and position I have sought after my entire life, what makes you think I'd give up it up you old fool?"

"It will destroy you if you don't."

"FOOL." The force behind that one word sent power through out the room and slightly distorted the air in some places. "I control this power, it can not destroy me."

"You are the foolish one Morgana. It is impossible for any human to be the Watcher without being affected in some way. It is only a matter of time before your soul is crushed or you loose your mind to the power. You have already been a Demi-God for far longer then you should have."

"I AM THE GOD OF THIS WORLD WAVE MASTER. I choose the seasons, I control the earth, I decide who's fields are fertile, I command life and death. If that isn't godly, then what is?"

"You can die Morgana, that is the ultimate test of a God, you can die and you know I can make that happen."

"Not without my consent Herald, and that is something that I will not allow."

"It may take all my power and my life, but if you will not let another take your place then you will be forced to die. It may not happen within my lifetime, but you will fall. You will be sealed away, I will create my child, and she will be awakened."

Tsukasa had been treated indifferently until the strange man turned around and spoke directly to the teen. "Please, awaken my child and put an end to Her nightmare."

The man faded away taking the light with him, leaving Tsukasa stranded in an endless expanse of darkness, with only the female voice to taunt him. "Herald's wish will die with you and the twin blade." A loud note rang out all around Tsukasa, pushing on his mind and body, forcing him to fall to the ground while covering his ears to try and lessen the sound. "Your foolish Administrators will kill you and nothing will be left to threaten me." The sound only continued to get louder until the pain became too great and Tsukasa awoke from his sleep.

Despite the pain, he did not awake with a jerk nor did he move at all. He was about to get up when he herd Sora's voice, "You never did answer my question I asked so long ago. You act like the bravest hero ever yet you ran from my question and avoided answering it ever since." Tsukasa assumed the thief was taking to Ouka or Balmung about something trivial, but was proven wrong on both assumptions as well as being completely blown away by what he herd next. "So Crim, you never did say whether you loved me or not, even after I confessed first."

The Wave Master's mind froze on that last sentence, first wondering if he was dreaming. Tsukasa couldn't believe that someone like Sora could ever love a person like Crim, so he simply believed that he was having a bad dream (why he would have a dream like that he didn't know, but the thought accrued to him), but that notion dissolved when he pinched himself and didn't wake up.

The second notion, that he had heard wrong or that Sora was simply toying with him again, vanished when Crim spoke up to answer him, "I... I didn't really know what to answer. I was a little confused about how to answer..."

"You didn't seem confused when we spent the night to gather." Tsukasa was glad he was not facing the two speakers, since eyes were wide with shock. He knew he was hearing things that both adults didn't want anyone to know quite yet. "You also seem to really enjoy the kissing lessons you gave me."

"You had said those were to help you with the girl you liked."

"Correction, I said it was for my **crush** I never said anything about a girl. Even if I had been intending to be with some girl, you still seemed to enjoy them a little too much. The last session we had you didn't do any coaching, we just had one kiss for half an hour."

Tsukasa could feel the heat on Crim's face and knew the man was blushing like crazy. "Well... even if that is true, I didn't want to..."

"Don't make me laugh. You never did one thing to halt my advances and was getting into everything before we even had any cloths off. Please tell me that means you didn't want to do anything. Admit it, you don't want to be truthful about how you feel, that's why you ran off to join the Knights."

"And did you run off to join Helba when you didn't hear the reply you wanted?"

"I may have been hurt, but getting hurt like that wasn't enough to drive me into being a thief."

"The what did?"

Sora paused for a small amount of time and answered, "You answer my question and I'll answer yours." Crim began to walk away until Sora called out with another question. "If you won't answer that one, how 'bout this. Why did you come here so late at night?"

"I wanted to tell everyone that their trial would at noon tomorrow."

"At a time of night when everyone would be asleep? When most people wouldn't be able to hear your announcement? When you could watch people as they slept with peacefully?"

Tsukasa knew Sora had meant Crim had come to watch the thief sleep, and found that it was hard to deny the facts. Eventually, Tsukasa heard the Knight Leader leave and hoped that noon's trial would be less painful then his day and night was being.

-(TBC)-

**A/N:** musically Shonen-ai, shonen-ai, hur-ray for shonen-ai. /musically I've been planning on this for a while, and am stoked that I finally added in the whole shonen-ai (boy/boy love) part. I am a dedicated reader of boy/boy mangas and posses all current volumes of Gravitation and Eerie Queerie. Please inform me of other shonen-ai mangas you are aware of, even if they are doubly graphic novels (graphic novels containing graphic content) like Selfish Love and Kizuna: Bonds of Love.

Now, for the reviewers,

**Sargent Snarky:** Steal away as much as you desire. I have no problem with letting others creating their own reality fics, so steal/copy/use anything you'd like. I have none of this stuff copyrighted.

**Kitedragon:** Not the pictures... NOT THE PICTURES... NOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I didn't say you could use that as a weapon of choice.

**BH Syaoran:** You're reviews are always welcome and please continue reading.

**Steeple333:** I've never thought you're criticism too harsh. I know everything won't be perfect, and I know that my spelling won't be perfect. I'm too lazy to go over everything multiple times to try and get everything completely perfect. Review away.

**Wind Kaze**: Don't try and threaten me with lines like, "That is how you make enimies." Talk about childish. And yes, it is a threat because it implies that I will make an enemy (please note that it is spelt en**e**my and not en**i**my guess you really have learned to "find your own mistakes") of you if I continue, or if not you then some other nameless, powerless bully. Let us not forget that an enemy by definition is, "a person who hates, opposes or fosters harmful designs against another; hostile opponent." So if I continue, you will begin to foster harmful designs against me because you are my enemy. Please explain to me how that isn't a threat. And so much harm you could do to me as well, like giving me a review of spam, or you could stop reading my fan fic sarcasm and that would be awful, ya know, it would be a damn shame. Really. /sarcasm

I also like the part where you say I'm rude for singling someone out like I did to you, meaning you think I was mean to you, and say it shows that I can't handle criticism. In the same sentence, you say that your review wasn't criticism, so does that mean that what you wrote can be labeled as "other" and that I didn't have a hard time accepting criticism but I had a hard time with your "other"? I'm just curious.

And lastly the whole, my fan fic doesn't involve "reality"... lets see, it is lables as a **Fantasy** story, its a fan fic based on story which doesn't really touch on reality (the whole mind gettin trapped in a computer is far fetched) and the online game is not reality either, I wonder if this fan fic is going to be about Tsukasa and Mimiru sitting at a Starbucks drinking coffee and talking about how the stocks were the day before? Would you like me to write a story like that? Would that be a good "reality" story for you? If you wanted to read a story like that, why did you read a **Fantasy/Alternate Universe **story (note that the first words on the summaryare Alternate Universe)? I'm confused.


	13. Trial

Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters.

Notes: Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru, Elk-around 16 or 17.  
Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia, Kamui, Balmung- late 20's BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8 Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

Summary: An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

Reviews: Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

DotHack: Reality ch. 13 By: TsukasaTheFominian

Tsukasa was not able to sleep for the rest of the night because of the multiple revelations which had been presented to him earlier. His dream, the upcoming trial, and Sora's homosexual relationship with Crim had all weighed heavily on his mind. During the night, Tsukasa had tried not to think about the conversation he had heard between the two adults, but his mind kept drifting back to it. He had finally decided that since he wasn't gay that he didn't need to feel threatened by either men. One fear he had was that either man would force try to force himself on his body, but decided that was equally unlikely since Sora seemed to only have eyes for Crim, and Crim had had many opportunities to try something, but had only touched him as he would a friend or even as a soldier. 

With those worries finally out of his mind, he was finally able to focus on more important problems, such as the trial and his own mind. Tsukasa only thought on the trial for a half hour before finally realizing that there was nothing he could do except wait. He couldn't do anything besides wait because of the anti-magic spells within the prison systems, so he thought of his dream of the ancient Wave Master Herald.

He knew in his soul that the man had been Herald, and knew the dream he'd had was no dream, but a vision of the past. What Tsukasa didn't know, and which was more important, was what Herald was talking to, and what Herald's wish had been. The old man's last words, the entire dream he had, rang clear in his mind and he could remember everything with ease, "awaken my child and put an end to Her nightmare." Even his wish was straight forward, he still didn't know how, when, or where to accomplish the act. 'Who should I awaken, how do I awaken her, where is she, what does she looked like, when will I get my chance.' The questions seemed endless and the boy didn't know where to begin. The only thing that he could think of was that he desperately needed more information and only had until noon to get that information and escape from the wrath of the Administrators.

'In other words' he thought, 'I'm screwed.'

The others slept until around ten in the morning, all of them waking up uneventfully, and nobody was able to come up with any sort of a plan before then. Nobody had any of their weapons, magic was out of the question, and the older trio of Sora, Balmung, and Ouka had heard nothing from Helba. 

Kite was the only one to see any sort of bright side on their situation. "At least Black Rose and Mimiru should be ok."

"Why would we be ok?"

"The only thing you've done wrong was challenge the Cerulean Knights, and they have no jurisdiction here so you two shouldn't really be in jail."

"I agree with Kite on that one." Answered Subaru as she entered the chamber. "You two should never have been thrown in jail. You two will be released."

"And the rest of us?" Asked Ouka.

"As much as I regret it, there is nothing I can do for the rest of you. Everyone else still is still an Illegal of some type, and the administrators will not let that slide for anything."

"Even if two of us may be the only thing that can save this world?" Her brother asks.

The answer to that question came from Crim. "For some reason the Administrators fear the specially gifted more than anything else in this world. It isn't just that they fear being overthrown, they seemed the be afraid of the power they hold for completely different reasons. Nothing persuades them from their death, even if it's their own children."

Color drained from the teen's faces when faced with that reality. Mimiru was the first to recover from that shock and asked shakily, "They've really killed their own children?"

"I've only seen it once, when I first joined the Knights. I brought the child to his trial with the administrators, only for him to look at one of them and start screaming, 'Daddy! Daddy!'. The administrator didn't even blink or falter when they sentenced him to death."

The group could only shiver as they processed that knowledge. The knowledge that they were dealing with people who would kill their own children if needed. It didn't bode well for the group. 

It didn't take long for the group to be taken before the Admin. Their trial came earlier then expected, antd didn't last long. The place they were taken was an auditorium like room, the seats were empty except for a few Admin judges which awaited. The room had very powerful seals on it, making the use of magic or Gating powers impossible. 

The head judge, a man named Lios, allowed the condemned to speak, but acted like they were simply wasting his time. Mimiru was only able to swallow this treatment for a little bit before she had an outburst.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" She let all of the anger she'd been feeling out. "Balmung was protecting Lady Subaru, as was Tsukasa, and Kite stopped the onslaught of that weird, unstoppable monster! How can you just act like there's nothing wrong with killing them?"

Lios only scowled at the girl's defiant behavior. "Because it's my job. A little girl like you would never understand." Lios waved for silence from the crowd of convicts. "I have reached a decision." Everyone waited for an answer. "All of the present detained criminals will be executed."

The roar of complaints from the group seemed overwhelming. Subaru herself stepped forward to try and reason with the man. "Sir, as much as I must accept your decision, I do believe you are taking this a little too far. Especially for the two young girls here, Mimiru and Black Rose. They have done nothing wrong except try to defend their friends."

"My will is final in this Subaru. They will be executed along with the criminals they tried to protect."

Tsukasa could only think of how to get out alive. He wanted to at least get Mimiru and the others out. They had done nothing wrong, and were only guilty of just being themselves. The only thing he could do was look into himself, and try to find something that could help them all. Then he found it, the power that had saved them before. The power which he hoped would save them now. He tapped into it, and lost himself to the Twilight.

"You Administrators are all fools." The words were coming out of Tsukasa's mouth, but it didn't seem like it was the boy himself. He sounded older, different. Crim didn't know what was going on, but he knew that the young teen hardly ever talked, never made speeches, and never sounded like this. "Do you not realize?"

"We don't need to explain ourselves to a child like you." An administrator on Lios's left said. 

"I guess you don't." Whoever was talking, it sounded like he was saddened by the Admin's stupidity. "Listen well guides of this world, killing the gifted will not stop the return of the Cursed Wave, for it was never really destroyed." The Admin seemed shocked by the words of the teenage boy.

Subaru looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"That is the only reason these fools continuously kill those who are different. The original Abominable Wave was created by someone with special powers. These Admin believed the Wave was destroyed long ago, and that killing those with strange abilities will keep it from returning."

"How do you know about that? Nobody outside the Administers are suppose to know that."

Tsukasa just ignored Lios's question and formed a sphere of Rainbow light in his hands. When the ball took form, Kite's Bracelet began to react. "I can not allow you to destroy His hope. The Wave still exists and these people hold the key to stopping it." Tsukasa threw the ball up into the air where it exploded and made something that looked like a net become visible.

"Kite." The Wave Master was looking directly at the young Twin Blade. "That is the spell which is sealing your warp abilities and magic. Use your bracelet to drain it's power and destroy it."

"Somebody stop them!" Leos was adamant about their capture. 

Unfortunately, not everyone with weapons there was on the Admin's side. Crim used his spear to cut through the restraints binding the group, freeing the Warriors to help defend everyone. For people like Ouka, her fists were more then enough to stop some of the guards in the room. 

"Crim! Do you really thing you can betray us so easily?" The Admins all looked like they wanted to murder the Knight Leader.

"My vow was to this world and its people. Not to a bunch of stupid old men trying to kill those people for no reason." 

"Mine as well" Subaru stepped forward. "I will not let you kill any more innocent people."

Sora was the next to speak, but not to the Admins. "Kite! Do it now!"

The Bracelet Bearer didn't really know how his weapon worked, but something inside told him what to do. He raided his arm up toward the web and activated the power of his bracelet. Everyone froze as a beam of light shot up at the web, causing it to crumble into nothing. 

Nobody could believe what had happened. Not even Helba had been able to brake through the protections that had sealed them, but this young boy had done it like it was nothing. 

Tsukasa had returned to normal during the show, wondering what had happened and how everyone became armed. Subaru later told him that she had ordered some of her knights to bring everyone's weapons in order to help with their escape. That she had every intension of helping the group get away from the Admin, even at the cost of her life.

Not really knowing what was going on, the Wave Master simply ran with everyone to the Gate they'd used to get to the area, hoping to use it to escape. The Admin were trying their best to stop them, but their abilities were weak when dealing with some of the best fighters of their age. 

They reached the gate fairly quickly, but as soon as they got there Tsukasa herd a strange female voice.

"Incompetent fools. Must I do everything myself?"

The Gate stopped spinning, and faded out of existence. Everyone, even the administrators seemed surprised by what happened. The gate failing paled in comparison to what happened next. The area seemed to completely change, they were all surrounded by a high wall trapping them in the rocky area they were now in. They found that they also had one other person opposing them. A man who was suppose to be dead. A man who Black Rose recognized from a statue they'd recently seen. 

Sora noticed Tsukasa go white at the sight of the man, and he correctly identified him. "Tomo-yuki."

The man responded by giving the boy a cruel smile. "You don't look like you're happy to see me son." The swordsman laughed. "Then again, after you killed me I doubt you would be happy." 


	14. Double Battle

Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters. 

Notes: Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru, Elk-around 16 or 17.  
Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia, Kamui, Balmung- late 20's BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear- Late 30's Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8 Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

Summary: An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

Reviews: Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

**DotHack: Reality ch. 14**  
By: TsukasaTheFominian

'Its not possible. He can't be here, the Guardian got rid of him long ago.' Tsukasa was terrified. The man who had stood above him for so long, the man who had made his first 10 years of life a living hell, he couldn't be here.

Everyone's reactions were different.

"What do you mean, Tsukasa killed you?" Subaru demanded. "He would never kill anyone."

"You mean he never told you? About how he used that slime monster to kill me all those years ago?" Tomo-yuki just laughed evilly. "I guess nobody would want to admit killing a hero."

Everyone watched as Tsukasa exploded on the man. "What hero!? What father!? You were never anything like that! A father would love his son, you just wanted a fighter to follow in your footsteps. A hero would have been humble about his accomplishments, you boasted every chance you got. You're nothing to me!"

Tsukasa used his magic to summon his Guardian to the field, exposing it to everyone there, including the Admins. He ordered it to attack, but it did nothing. "What…?"

"Did you really think you could kill a ghost my boy?" The man just walked forward, drawing his sword. "You always were an idiot. A worthless idiot. Imagine, a great swordsman like me fathering a Wave Master."

Everyone in the area could hear the man talking, and everyone caught the tone in his voice when he said Wave Master. It was a tone of disgust, like being a Wave Master was the lowest of the low.

Mimiru remembered her talk with Tsukasa, where he had described this man. "I knew Tomo before he died, and he wasn't kind at all. He was rude, self centered, and a stuck-up jerk, but everyone thinks of him as some sort of god." She could see that Tsukasa had been right, and that he'd even held back a little when describing his real personality.

Everyone could see it, this man thought he was god, and that everyone should worship him. To this so-called "hero", everyone else was beneath him, and everyone who didn't fight with swords was even lower. Crim didn't know how the child had grown up as normal as he was with a father like that (True, Tsukasa was still weird, but not completely warped) 'If I'd had someone like that as a father, I would have probably died.'

"In any event, there's only one reason I came back Tsukasa. To return the favor." He made a swipe with his sword, but Subaru pulled him back out of the ghosts reach. Mimiru, Black Rose, Kite, and the adults placed themselves in between the spirit and his son, ready to defend him.

"You don't really think you can win, do you?"

Ouka was the one to answer him, "We won't know till we try. And frankly, I don't like you. So I'll never let you have what you want." Ouka rushed the man and tried punching with her fists, but they simply went through the apparition. He struck out with his sword, but she jumped back as quick as she could. Not before the sword made a light cut on her arm though.

Crim couldn't hide his shock. "How the…?"

"It can harm us, but we can't harm him?" Black Rose shouted what everyone else was thinking.

Balmung launched in with his sword, using a fire based attack. His efforts got the same results and the same fruits.

All except Tsukasa, he was too busy remembering what his father had done to him and his mother, and what had led to the old man's death.

Everyone had thought that Tomo-Yuki's son had gone out to a field one day, that his worried mother had followed him, and that in trying to protect both of them, Yuki had died. The truth was that the man had been fed up with disappointments. That his son was a lowly Wave Master, that his wife couldn't give him any more children, that the legacy as a swordsman he'd spent his life crafting wouldn't be passed on to his child. He had decided to get rid of his problems in one fell swoop.

Tsukasa remembered feeling joy that his father had taken him and his mother out to a field, that maybe he'd become happy. He remembered that joy turning to terror as his father had kicked his mother into a magic portal and how the cruel man laughed as the woman was killed.

The boy's hatred for his father had been too much, and that hatred had summoned the Guardian for the first time. The dumbbell had made quick work of the monster, and then proceeded to slowly kill Tomo-Yuki at Tsukasa's command.

Outside of the Wave Master's mind, the fight wasn't going good. Everyone had taken small wounds, and not even Kite's Bracelet was having any effect. Nothing seemed to work on the ghost; spells, arrows, elemental attacks, everything was useless against the creature.

Not even Lios and the other Admin could figure out what was happening. They'd never herd of a ghost coming back to haunt people. They'd never even seen a Gate just disappear either.

Subaru was finally able to get Tsukasa to focus on the battle after a while, but that still didn't solve any of their problems. They only watched in horror as their friends tried to fight the apparition, and watched as they all got more and more wounds.

"This is so strange." said Subaru. "I've never herd of a Chaos Gate disappearing, or of people being transported to a field without a Gate."

'Subaru's got a point. Not even my powers could do all of that. I'm sure that not even the Admin or Helba could do anything like this.' After a while something else occurred to the teen Wave Master, 'This isn't like Yuki at all. None of this seems real.' Then a thought struck Tsukasa, and he wondered how they could all be so dense. He rushed out of Subaru's arms and ran up to the ghost of his father.

"Come to accept your punishment boy?" The spirit sneered.

"No, my father deserved what he got. Even if you were him, I wouldn't just accept death."

"If I'm not your father, then who am I?"

"I don't know, but you're not Tomo-Yuki." Tsukasa looked the spirit right in the eyes and watched as the image waver. Then he knew he was right. "Tomo-Yuki loved his reputation more then anything else in this world. He would never sully it by coming now and exposing his true nature to a group of people." Everyone watched as the ghost started to loose substance, and become unfocussed. "Also, Yuki never waited for anything. If he wanted something, money, power, revenge, he took it without hesitation. He would never wait this long to get revenge. Nothing about what's happened to us seems real. The Gate, this Field, you, none of it is real is it." Everything around them began to become blurry. "That's it, right? This is nothing more then a mirage, an illusion!"

The illusions that had been created disappeared and revealed they had been in a normal field all along. The Chaos Gate still worked, there were exits, and floating above the ground was a monster which looked like a jigsaw puzzle.

Everyone, stared at the field. Sora noticed something odd, "Why do we still have wounds if it was all just an illusion?"

The others looked around and saw the thief was right, but Tsukasa still seemed to have all the answers. "Its because we believed in the illusions. Our belief gave the that monster its powers. Once we challenged the images and revealed them for the fakes they were, they lost all of their powers."

The monster seemed determined to finish the job it had started. It collected a sphere of energy in front of it and sent a shock wave at Kite. It was so sudden that if Balmung hadn't intercepted the blast with his sword, the Twin Blade would surely have died. Even the Descendant of Fianna had trouble handling that blast. They also learned that their new enemy was also extremely quick after it zoomed off to the right and tried another blast, this time at Mimiru.

Mimiru was able to dodge the strike and distract the creature while Sora dashed up to it from behind, blades glowing purple with his Instant Death attack. They'd hoped that would be the end of the confrontation, but they watched in horror as the wounds on the monster's back simply healed itself.

"Its just like that other one." remarked Black Rose.

Kite just stepped forward, his bracelet glowing. "Well, if its just like that other thing, then this should weaken it." He fired off his bracelet at the monster, but watched as the creature dodged his attack and tried to strike out at Crim. The Red Thunder was able to dodge easily, and was easily able to counter attack, but the results were the same as when Sora wounded it. Kite tried weakening it with his bracelet while the monster was healing, but it simply dodged again.

"Damn it! How are we suppose to beat this thing." Ouka had just tried attacking, but the creature avoided her assault and struck out at her. Only a shield constructed by Tsukasa saved her from a direct hit.

The administrators were just confused and scared. Nothing had ever been outside of their control, but here were a group of people who defied their powers, broke their seals, and were fighting a monster they couldn't get rid of. Only Lios was remaining calm, thinking about what the boy had said, and reflecting that with what was happening. 'If the Cursed Wave really wasn't destroyed, then is this one of the creatures of the Wave?'

"Crap!!" Kite was getting angry. That was the third time the monster had dodged his bracelet. Nothing seemed to be working. No spell seemed to affect that thing. Just like nothing could stop Skeith. 'Nothing accept the bracelet, and…' The red twin blade looked over at Tsukasa and remembered the last incident. "Tsukasa! Use that twilight power! Call the dragon." The monster seemed to hear Kite and began attacking him, completely ignoring the others.

"What does he mean?" Tsukasa couldn't remember summoning a dragon, and he didn't remember any twilight power. Subaru was still with him, so she was the one to answer.

"When you blacked out those last few times, your body became enveloped in some strange rainbow colored aura. And the first time, you summoned some sort of dragon which paralyzed that last creature. It might have a the same affect with this creature too."

"But…" Tsukasa couldn't remember anything from those times, only feeling drained. And if what Subaru said was true, he also seemed to loose control of his body to something else.

Before them, the monster still decimate their group. Nothing any of them did seemed to work, and the creature was beginning to hit its mark. Balmung's arm was grazed, and while Tsukasa watched, Mimiru was hit on the leg. It wasn't a fatal wound but it sparked something in the Wavemaster. For a brief moment, he didn't care what happened to himself. Even if he was completely lost in his powers, the only thing he cared about was saving his friends. Once again that day, he reached down and grasped the twilight power.

He felt the euphoria, the peace, the light, but he tried not to loose himself to it. He fought to remain in control. He was only half successful. He didn't black out this time, but he wasn't in control either. The teen didn't know what was worse, blacking out and being controlled, or being awake and helpless to be controlled. 'This really sucks.' thought the Wave Master. But his thoughts were interrupted by another voice. 'I am sorry, but you aren't strong enough to defeat Innus. You will soon though. The fact that you don't fall unconscious anymore proves that.' Tsukasa's body had regained the rainbow aura, and had begun speaking the summoning spell again. Like the last time, the white pillar appeared and Kite watched on as the rainbow dragon came forth.

Everyone had regained the calming feeling again, and like last time, the monster became frozen before it. Kite "herd" someone in his mind again, 'Quickly warrior, Tsukasa is weak and cannot sustain me for long. Use your bracelet on this creature.'

Kite didn't need telling twice. He raised his arm, activated his power, and the frozen monster was hit dead on by the bracelet. Sora, Ouka, Crim, Balmung, and the others watched in awe as the monster began deteriorating, becoming a group of floating stones like the last ones. When the drain was over, Kite was holding a small sphere again, this one in an orange color. Soon after, the dragon disappeared as well. Everyone took that as a signal to rush the monster. It did try to run from them, but the quicker group members like Crim and Sora cut the monster off jabbing at it while the stronger members like Blackrose and Ouka pounded away on it. Soon the monster shattered into pieces and crumbled into nothing.

After that fight, nobody had any strength left. Everyone sank to the ground completely exhausted in every way. Emotionally from the trial and escape, physically from the two fights. They were all surprised when the Administrators walked over and Lios asked, "What did you just do?"

Nobody there answered, but a strange voice did. One that some of the people there knew very well. "They just saved your life."

And someone warped in. A woman dressed in white, wearing a strange helmet, and wielding a strange white staff. Lios knew her all too well. "Helba!"

"Its nice to see you again Lios old friend." Helba was smiling and gave a gesture of greeting. "I hope that you understand now Lios. That there is something else in this world and it is malicious."

One of the men standing next to their leader shouted, "How do we know that you just didn't create that thing and send it after us."

"If I had created that thing and was sending it after you, then it would have attacked you. It did no such thing, it went after my own allies." Sora tried to stand and speak with his leader, but found he was too tired and injured for that. "Easy my friend, you just need to relax and let me get you back home."

"Do you really think we'll just let you get away so easily Helba?" Lios asked.

"I don't think you **let** me do anything. I do it on my own." She raised her hands and summoned her power. "Good luck to you administrators." She warped out, and was followed by all of the people who had fought. With the web gone, Helba could come and go as she pleased. Something that made all of the admins very angry.

--------------(TBC)-----------------

**A/N**: Hello all. I'm back. Again. You may hate me, but I just can't work on a story when I don't feel like it. I may update after a couple of months, or next week depending on my mood. I don't know why I'm so fickle, I just am.

Thank you for reviews, and sorry for my spelling errors. I try to use a word document to fix it, but it doesn't always work.

With the whole .hack//GU and .hack//Roots thing going on, I'll probably add some more characters in. The beast class of those games would be great for the whole mutant thing I have going (it just works out so well), so Gaspard and Tabby will probably show up in NetSlum as minor characters. I plan on having Haseo be part of the Admin's side as well.

_Haseo:_ What!! I'm the hero of G.U. and of Roots, why do I get the part of a bad guy?!

_Me:_ Don't worry. It'll just be for a few chapters. You'll have a big fight sceen with Kite, get your ass kicked, get some sense knocked into you (or maybe Kite will drain some insainity off with the Bracelet) and then you'll join up with everyone else.

_Haseo:_ (smirking) and how is shrimpy little Kite gonna beat me?

_Me:_ Simple. I'll transform him into Azure Flame Kite (Tri-Edge Kite) from the G.U. games. You could only really beat him with your Avatar. Saddly, there will be no Avatars in this Fic.

_Haseo:_ YOU CAN'T!!! You can't do that to me! And how are you gonna explain that transformation away Mr. Bigshot?

_Me:_ His bracelet. It has the Power of Twilight in it. When Tsukasa the Wavemaster uses his Power of Twilight, he gains superhuman magical power and kinda looses his mind. When Kite the Warrior fully uses the Bracelet's power, he'll loose himself to Twilight, gain superhman strength and speed, and kinda loose his mind (I consider Azure Flame Kite from G.U. to be superhuman and insain).

_Haseo:_ (Gulps) Umm... Is there anyway out of this?

_Me:_ Nope. Also, since this fic is based on the old Character Classes, I have to adapt the G.U. characters to fit that. Example: Gaspard and Atoli will become Wavemasters, but Atoli (Harvest Clerics in general) will focas more on healing and protection, while Gaspard (or any Shadow Warlock) will focas on attack spells. Haseo will still have the whole Adept Rouge thing going on, but his wepons will be of the oldschool variety.

_Haseo:_ You mean I don't get my Avatar, my scythe, or my chainsaw sword?

_Me:_ (smile) Nope. (turns to readers) I hope you enjoy. By the way, do you think the whole transforming Kite thing is too over the top?

_Haseo:_ Yes!! Yes it is! Please say yes!

_Me:_ (whacks Haseo with a paper fan) Quiet you. You don't get a say in the matter.

_Haseo:_ That hurt dammit.

_Me:_ Wimp. (turns to readers) Later.


	15. Rest Up

Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own .hack or its characters. 

Notes: Ages-Tsukasa, Mimiru, Kite, Black Rose, Mistral, Mireille, Subaru, Elk-around 16 or 17.  
Sora, Crim, Silver Knight, Ouka, Gardenia, Kamui, Balmung- late 20's BT, Sanjuro, Helba, Moonstone, Nuke, Rachel, Bear, Lios- Late 30's Hotaru, Reki, A-20, Ryoko Terajima- around 7 or 8 Macha- ? Unknown

This is my first fan fic ever written, so review with constructive criticism. FYI, constructive criticism is when you tell the person what they are doing wrong and how to fix it; not just telling a person that they suck and have make a bunch of mistakes.

Summary: An alternate universe where the game characters from dothack are not game characters, but real people. It is not part of a game, but reality itself. Tsukasa is a parentless child living in the city of Dun Loireag. After having an unusual field adventure will his classmates, his boring life starts to change, but will it be for better or worse?

Reviews: Please review me if you like this story, reviews will give me incentive to create new chapters and or stories

DotHack: Reality ch. 15  
By: TsukasaTheFominian

The teens weren't sure what to make of the Net Slums. Everything seemed weird, but also safe. "Paradise" seemed like a strange name at first, but everyone soon found that the city fit its nickname. How could it not, being the last safe haven for illegals and mutants. Helba had warped them all there and had healed their wounds, a fact that everyone was thankful for. The White Wavemaster could tell they were all tired (anyone could from their blank stares, sagging shoulders, and half closed eyes) and was leading them to her home so they could rest. They were all getting strange stairs from the people in the town, traveling with their leader can do that. They were half way there when someone called interrupted them.

"Helbaaa! You have a message." There was a short monster running up to them. At least that's what Tsukasa first thought, but he saw that whatever it was had human features as well. Then the teen remembered Net Slum was a home to both illegals and mutants, the pinkish doglike person was the later.

"Gaspard, what did you need?" Helba gave her young friend a smile. He seemed out of breath like usual.

"Some of the Wave Masters I've been training over did it and their powers went out of control. Philo's been trying to contain them, but its really getting out of hand. Do you think you can get over there and reign them in?"

"I'll leave immediately. Could you escort these people to my home? They've been thorough a terrible fight and need some time to rest." She turned to her group. "I'll be back as soon as I'm able. Please rest and try to relax, you are my guests and no one here will harm you. Farewell." She turned and gated out.

Mimiru, Tsukasa, Kite, Black Rose, Subaru and Crim all looked surprised. "Is the training grounds in another area or something?" The twin blade asked.

"No." Answered Ouka. "It's in another part of the city. But that's one of Helba's abilities. She can gate to anywhere she wants to, even within an area."

"She can even gate into a dungeon." Sora added.

"That's incredible!" said Mimiru. "I'd herd Helba was powerful, but I didn't know just how powerful."

Crim looked startled too. "I had some contact with her, but not even I knew about that little ability. It really shows how much even Subaru and I don't know about her."

"Not even we know all of Helba's powers," explained Balmung. "I doubt anyone knows the full extent of her abilities."

"It's probably best that way," Gaspard voiced. "If we who are closest to her don't know what she can do, then there's know way that people like the Administrators could find out either. The unknown can be a powerful ally."

They continued walking for a while. After about 5 more minutes, they reached the largest house in the area. One that Sora and Ouka had entered many times. One where the Queen of the Dark lived One where two hyper children ran out of upon seeing the group enter the area. They were both blurs, one which attacked Sora and the other that went after Tsukasa. Neither was able to resist the attack and both ended up on the ground as Hotaru and Reki clung to them.

"PapaPapaPapa. Yourhomeyourhomeyourhome." Hotaru was a little too excited for her own good.

"Its good to see you too Hotaru."

"I'm so glad that you're here Tsu-cha!" Everyone turned to stare at Reki (and Tsukasa).

The older teen darkened at the nickname and glared at the younger boy. "Reki, do you remember the talk I gave to everyone at the orphanage last year."

"Talk?"

"Yes. The one where I told everybody to never call me Tsu-chan under any circumstances?"

"Tus-chan..." That one came from Mimiru, who looked like she was about to burst out laughing. She wasn't the only one. Kite, Blackrose, Sora and Crim had similar expressions. The others weren't about to laugh, but they were either smiling or had smiles pulling at their lips.

Reki seemed to have the biggest smile of them all and Tsukasa had a feeling of what would happen next. He hated said feeling with every fiber of his being.

"But its sooo much fun to call you that, Tsu-Chan."

Everyone from Group A broke out laughing, while Group B now looked like they were about to loose it. The fact that Tsukasa was blushing like crazy did help matters in the slightest. The Wave Master pried Reki off himself and stocked into the house while loudly saying he was going to get some rest.

The laughter died down after a while and everyone headed inside the building. Balmung and Sora wanted to know what was going on in the city, so Gaspard filled them in. "Nothing much really. Orca was really worried about you Balmung, but Helba didn't let him go after you. Other then you guys getting captured and returning was that Ovan and Kuhn said the new weapon was ready."

Kite gave the small Wave Master a look. "New weapon?"

"Ovan heads a weapons development section," explained Ouka. "He and his assistant Kuhn have been making a new type of range weapon called a Steam Gun. They've been working on it for over a year and have just been working the kinks out of their invention."

"A new weapon..." Subaru and Crim didn't seemed as surprised as the others. "I'd heard of something being in the works. Does it seem useful?"

Gaspard took the initiative. "Very. Right now the only long ranged attacks we have are from Wave Masters. With this Steam Gun we can have powerful ranged attacks that are physical. They're kinda useless in close combat though."

Only the adults and Subaru seemed interested in the discussion. The teen's were a little too tired to really care about anything, much less a new type of weapon. They all were lead by the children into a back room where they found Tsukasa asleep in a bed. Quietly sleeping away.

"This sure has been one strange day." Kite was completely tired emotionally and physically. Mimiru felt the same.

"Its been a strange few days. Two fights with unbeatable monsters, being in prison, facing the Admin. Nothing seems to be normal anymore."

"Normal is kinda overrated," said Blackrose. "But you guys are right, this is way to far gone for anybody's good."

They all climbed into any bed they could find, not really caring who it belonged to, and quickly fell asleep.

In the other room, Balmung, Sora, and Ouka were making sure of things with their newest allies. "After everything we just pulled, the Admin are going to tighten security in the cities even more." Crim had a feeling that everyone already knew that, but he felt obliged to voice the concern.

"Knowing those idiots, they'll just put Kamui in charge of everything and go on trying to hunt us down." Sora added.

Subaru felt slightly different though. "I think they might change in some way. After everything they witnesses at the trial, I can't think otherwise. The powerful illusion, the dragon Tsukasa summoned, the unbeatable monster, they're bound to do something different." She voiced her darker opinion as well. "But I don't know if it'll be for better or worse."

A new voice spoke from the doorway. "I've got a feeling that now they'll want to kill us all instead of just capturing." A man walked in carrying a sword and in full body armor. Half of his face was painted green, the green paint went down half his body too. "They'll just skip the jury and go straight for the execution." Orca looked around the table, glad to see his old friend after so long.

His eyes met Balmung's and they both smirked at each other.

"Nice to have you back my winged partner. Helba said she'll be awhile. She wanted to let everyone rest before she talks to everyone."

Nobody seemed very surprised. "Those kids went right to sleep. They'll need to hear what Helba has to say as well." Stated Sora.

The adults went to their rooms. The room the kids had zonked out was made just for that. Guests who didn't have anywhere else to go. The others all had rooms on the second floor of the house, but there was a little bit of a dilemma. It was unanimously decided that Subaru should bunk with Ouka, but Crim only found Sora willing to share his room. This was after he begged both Balmung and Orca to share with him only to get knowing glances from the Blademasters and a quick refusal.

"Where is Hotaru by the way?" The two little squirts had disappeared when everyone had gone inside and Sora had been wondering what had happened.

Gaspard was the one with that answer. "We had an agreement that she would go back to classes once you came back." A glare from the thief brought about an explanation. "She refused to go to school while you were captured, so we agreed that she'd go back as soon as she saw you again."

Crim, who'd been nervous about being alone with his old friend, seemed to see a little light of hope in the smaller mutant. "Say Gaspard, I'm not that tired so maybe you can show me the/" The light faded when Sora hit him hard in the back of the head, cutting off his sentence. Mr. Green Hair had put enough force into it to stun the man for a short amount of time.

The smaller Wave Master could only look on confused. "Are you sure that was necessary?"

"Of course. The man just doesn't know his limits too well. Just leave him to me and he'll be just fine." Sora proceeded to drag Crim into his room. Orca and Balmung could only look on and hope their red coated friend wouldn't be too traumatized after Sora was through with him.

* * *

The chamber was dark, the local light sources shined down on the only occupants. The Admins were trying to discuss how to deal with the current developments, but their talks weren't going anywhere.

"It's all that Helba's fault!"

"But she didn't send that monster, it attacked her own people."

Lios was the only one making much sense. "I'm concerned about what that Wave Master spoke of. That the Dark Wave wasn't destroyed like we thought."

Another man cut in. "That's absurd, everyone knows that Herald destroyed the Wave."

But Lios wouldn't be bought in by simple ideas. "All anyone knows is that the fighting ended with Herald's death. Perhaps he only found a way to contain the Abominable Wave. Do any of us really know the truth?"

None of the others could answer his questions, everyone knew that he could easily be right. No records existed that told of what happened to the Wave; if it had been destroyed, or, like Lios said, if it was merely contained.

Another seemed to agree, their head Admin, Yata. "What you say is a possibility, Lios. I want a team to look through the history and try to find just what happened to the Cursed Wave, whether or not it truly was destroyed. Those two monsters that appeared, the one with the staff in Mac Anu, and the Jigsaw monster at our sentencing area, were unlike anything I had seen before.

"However, I also dislike Helba and her group. They undermine all of our power. Two underage teens were able to destroy our most powerful protection spells like it was nothing. They need to be taken care of. Which is why I have summoned you..." Yata turned to the young man standing behind him. A man in his early twenties, with white hair and black spiked armor.

"You have their descriptions and the information we had on them. Find and eliminate them."

The man gave a dark smile. "Yes sir," he said before gating out.

Lios only glared at Yata, something that the Head Admin had been expecting. "Something bothering you Lios?"

"You know perfectly well what I think of what you've had done to that person."

"And you know that we need strong people working under us. Above all else, we need them to obey our commands."

-----------------------------------------------------------------

The dark clad warrior was wondering how to go about his new assignment. He had just warped into Mac Anu to try and find some leads, but found something else. A confrontation he wasn't looking for. A female Wave Master wearing all white was standing there. "Haseo!"

"Atoli, now's not a good time I've" but he didn't get a chance to finish his sentence, his friend got in his face and started yelling.

"Got an assignment, right? Or you're just tired? Perhaps your just 'busy' this time?" The Warrior couldn't look her in the eyes. Was he really getting so predictable?

"Haseo, I'm worried about you." Atoli looked almost too sad for words, but her words only confused the man.

"You know I'm the strongest person in our year, do you really think I could get hurt that easily?"

"That not what I meant and you know it!" Atoli looked angry that her old friend wasn't taking her seriously. "Ever since you started working for the Admins, you never do anything with anyone. You haven't even talked to any of the old group. Matsu, Alkaid, Sakisaka, you haven't talked to any of them. Even more important, you never smile anymore. Not even a little."

Haseo didn't know what to say to her, he couldn't deny anything she was saying.

"Haseo, what is the Admins are making you do? Why don't you smile anymore?"

He didn't know what to tell Atoli, so he just walked past her. Or he tried to at least. She grabbed onto his arm as he tried to get past.

"Don't ignore me, and don't try to run away! I'm your friend Haseo, I want to help you. But I can't do that if you don't tell me what's going on.'

"Just leave me alone Atoli." He pulled his arm out of her grip and just walked on. Too afraid of seeing the hurt look in Atoli's eyes after being brushed off like that.

The young woman could only look on as her friend left her like it was nothing. She couldn't figure out what to do after that, so she warped somewhere she could think quietly.

TBC

* * *

All right, new chapter. And I've finally added GU characters into this. I'll fit a fight scene into this the next or second next chapter.


End file.
